Introducing the Training Navigator

Rank your Foundation Programme rotations with confidence with Messly’s Training Navigator.

See how rotations are rated by last year’s Foundation trainees to make smarter decisions about where you’ll spend your Foundation Training.

You can use it to answer questions like:

👉 Which are the best-rated and worst-rated rotations in my Foundation School?

👉 How do the rotations compare for workload, learning, and satisfaction?

👉 Which is the best hospital for my favourite specialties?

👉 Within a hospital, which rotations are best-rated?

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How the Training Navigator Works 📚

1️⃣ Choose your Foundation School

You’ll see the total rotations and total hospitals at the top of the page. You can change Foundation School later if want to check out another one.

2️⃣ Select a filter

‍The specialty filter will show all the rotations grouped by specialty. If you select hospital from the menu, you'll then see the rotations grouped by hospital. You can then expand each group to see the rotations and their scores.

3️⃣ Review scores

Each rotation has a workload score, satisfaction score, and learning score, plus an overall score. High and low ranked rotations are marked in green and red, respectively. We also show you the rotation’s ranking out of all rotations in the Foundation School. See below for more information on these scores, and how they're calculated.

4️⃣ Rank and review

‍Rank the rotations by your chosen score to see which rates highest and lowest in each area. Add your home address to see travel distances to the hospital from your home, via car, or by public transport.

5️⃣ Select your favourites!

‍By clicking the heart icon next to a rotation, it will be added to your favourites. This allows you to build a collection of rotations that you’d like to preference on Oriel. You can see your list of favourites by clicking the menu, which is at the top of the page on mobile and on the left-hand-side on a computer. You can also download them to a spreadsheet using the ‘download’ button.

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‍ACCESS THE TRAINING NAVIGATOR

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Data, Methodology, and FAQs 📈

What is the source of this data?

The data is sourced from the GMC’s National Training Survey. The NTS asks trainees detailed questions about their experience of training in each of their rotations in that year. The data is then aggregated and shared with Messly to produce the Training Navigator.

Which doctors complete the National Training Survey?

Trainees at all levels asked to complete the survey.

Any doctors outside of training, such as locums, trust grade doctors, and clinical fellows aren't eligible to complete the survey.

Why are some hospitals or rotations missing?

To be included in the NTS data, each rotation needs to have feedback from at least three trainees at that level of training (Foundation, Core, or Higher). For example, in a more niche rotation where there are only two Foundation Trainees rotating through at any time, no data is shared. This is to avoid false conclusions being drawn with insufficient data.

What information is collected in the NTS?

For each rotation, trainees are asked to provide feedback on the following areas, called indicators:

Adequate Experience
Clinical Supervision
Clinical Supervision Out-of-Hours
Curriculum Coverage
Educational Supervision
Educational Governance
Feedback
Handover
Induction
Local Teaching
Overall Satisfaction
Regional Teaching
Reporting Systems
Rota Design
Study Leave
Supportive Environment
Teamwork
Work Load
Facilities

Why have you created scores?

From speaking to doctors, we found that the raw data can be overwhelming, with up to 19 individual numbers for every rotation. The raw numbers also don’t give a clear indication of where that rotation stands relative to others.

We're often asked things like: What do these numbers mean? Is a Workload score of 43 good or bad? Is this better or worse than others?

So, we’ve crunched the numbers and broken them down in to four easy-to-understand scores, as outlined below.

What are the scores, and what do they mean?

Each rotation is given four scores:‍

✅ Workload Score: This gives an indication of how happy Foundation trainees in 2021 were with their workload. This is calculated primarily from the workload indicator, plus the teamwork indicator. The mean workload score is 54 and 10% of workload scores are above 80.‍

✅ Learning Score: This gives an indication of the clinical learning, experience, and supervision in the rotation. This is calculated from the following indicators: adequate experience, clinical supervision, curriculum coverage, educational supervision, educational governance, and induction. The mean learning score is 60 and 12% of learning scores are above 80.‍

✅ Satisfaction Score: This gives an indication of how satisfied overall the trainees reported feeling. It’s calculated primarily from the overall satisfaction indicator, plus the supportive environment indictor. The mean satisfaction score is 58 and 15% of satisfaction scores are above 80.‍

✅ Overall Score: This is an overall rating comprised of a combination of the above three scores. It gives a general overview of trainee feedback, including their workload, clinical learning, and satisfaction. The mean overall score is 62 and 19% of overall scores are above 80.

How are the scores calculated?

For each score, Messly’s algorithm takes the relevant raw indicator data, as explained above, and applies weightings based on their relative importance to that score. A further weighting is applied based on the variance from the national mean, so scores of high outliers are further boosted and vice versa.

This data is then mapped from 0 to 100 along a normal distribution, with a score of 100 being the best-rated and 0 being the worst.

What is the rank?

Within each Foundation School, the rotations are ranked by their overall scores. This shows where that rotation ranks within the Foundation School.

What do the colours mean?

Scores over 80 are marked in green in the Training Navigator, and scores under 40 are marked in red. This helps you quickly identify the best and worst rotations at a glance.

Does the Training Navigator include data for Core and Higher programmes?

Not at the moment. Currently, the Training Navigator only includes data for Foundation Training.

Are the scores always an accurate representation of the department?

Scores accurately represent the feedback from doctors in the GMC NTS in 2021.

In some cases, there may only be a small number of doctors who have responded to the survey, so the scores may be disproportionately skewed high or low on the basis of a small sample size. We recommend taking this into account when making your final decision on ranking your rotations.