Today, we’re analysing the 2018 GMC survey data to explore which of the main training pathways at Core level are rated highest for overall satisfaction and workload nationally. Look out for our accompanying articles where we’ll be breaking the data down further to look at how these ratings vary by deanery.

We’ve focused on six of the main training pathway options at CT1/ST1 level: Core Medical, Core Surgical, Core Anaesthetics, Core Psychiatry, Run Through Emergency Medicine (RTT) and GP training.

Unfortunately, due to the layout of the GMC survey data, we are unable to include the ACCS trainee ratings (for medicine, anaesthetics and emergency medicine streams respectively) – so we’ve only included the core pathways.

Core Anaesthetics takes the lead for overall satisfaction.

Trainees report both the highest satisfaction and the most manageable workload for Core Anaesthetics Training. Core Psychiatry and GP Training run close behind.

Emergency Medicine trainees report the worst workload ratings – but Core Medical and Core Surgical training have worse satisfaction rates.

Does the most competitive pathway produce the happiest trainees?

Actually, no! With almost 3 applicants per place, Core Surgery is the most competitive training pathway. But in terms of trainee satisfaction, it’s one of the worst-performing across the board.2018 Competition Ratios sourced from Health Education England.

Core Anaesthetics is the second most competitive specialty – applicants have clearly realised how highly regarded it is for work-life balance and overall satisfaction.

GP and psychiatry training have the least competitive rates but are rated highly by trainees.

For the full list of all possible training pathways and their competition ratios head here.

We’ve interviewed a huge range of specialty doctors about their working lives, from Anaesthetic Registrars to Geriatric Consultants – head over to our My Life as a Doctor collection to read further insights into the different specialties.

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.