Introduction
Trainees in Paediatrics must pass their Membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (MRCPCH) exams to progress through the training programme. Detailed information about the exams can be found on the RCPCH website.
Preparation
xam preparation is included in the Paediatric Regional Educational Programme (PREP) at the end of each training day. Trainees in Wessex have also produced a Guide to MRCPCH Examinations which is available to download.
Progression
In order to progress to Specialty Training year 3 (ST3) from Specialty Training year 2 (ST2), both parts of MRCPCH Part one must be passed. It is therefore worthwhile to start taking the part one exams as soon as the Specialty Training Year 1 (ST1) year has started. Some will have taken some exams prior to entering the specialty.
If you are struggling with your exams, please let your educational supervisor and the NHSE Wessex team know as we may be able to help with your exam preparation technique.
If you have not passed your 1B when you are due to move to ST3, you will remain in ST2 level posts and will be allowed up to one year additional training to achieve this. If, despite an extra year in training, you are unable to pass your exams, you are likely to be released from training unless there are exceptional circumstances.
In order to progress from ST3 to Specialty Training Year 4 (ST4) the clinical part two exam must be passed. We do have some middle grade ST3 posts and thus you may remain in ST3 yet still do middle grade posts for you to one additional year. If you have already had extra time to pass previous exams this will be taken into account as you can only have one extra year of training in total, to pass your exams.
Remember, if you are having trouble passing exams, or if there are personal circumstances (e.g. health, family etc. we don’t need details) hampering your attempts, let the HEE Wessex team know early on so that we can help sooner rather than later.