Making the transition to specialist practice as a new FACEM.

Abstract

The transition to specialist practice is a challenging time in a doctor's career. New fellows – who traditionally have been focused on becoming competent independent clinicians during advanced training – are thrust into a myriad of complex new situations in their practice as specialists. While changes to the ACEM curriculum framework to incorporate administrative and managerial domains into advanced training will ensure trainees have some experience in consultant level tasks, it is probable that becoming a new FACEM will remain a stressful transition. Identifying this, ACEM hosted a day long workshop for FACEMs less than 3 years post-fellowship at its 2016 Scientific Meeting and has established a new fellow's reference group to explore how it can address the issue further. The Royal Australasian College of Physicians has also noted this area of need, publishing ‘How to survive as a new consultant’, containing advice that is easily translatable to practice in emergency medicine (EM). The present article aims to explore some of the challenges presented to new FACEMs and provide practical advice to smooth the transition.