Training at Bristol Children's Hospital

Trainees on the Paediatric Single Training Grade may come to Bristol Children’s Hospital at any of four different times in their career.

There are a total of up to 10 Foundation doctors (2F1s, 6F2s and 2AF2s) every year, who rotate through the children’s hospital for four months during their first or second postgraduate year. These posts are designed to provide generic medical skills and to allow some exposure to paediatrics for doctors prior to embarking on a course of specialty training.

BCH and St Michaels provides subspecialty experience for doctors in their second and third year (ST2 and 3) of specialty training. This consists of either 6 month attachments to PICU and neonates or a subspecialty rotation with 9 week subspecialty blocks. These are designed to equip trainees with the necessary skills to embark on higher specialist training and to help inform future career choices.

Trainees at ST6-7 level rotate to BCH for further specialty experience. Specialty blocks of 6 months are available in 10 subspecialties and are allocated according to preferences and training needs by the Programme Director. (See Higher Specialty Training section).

BCH also runs training schemes approved by the national paediatric grid training system , which are appointed by national competition. There are currently 10 subspecialties offering grid training.

Training at ST2-3 level

Neonatal Training at St Michaels

The Peter Dunn Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St Michael’s Hospital services an annual inborn delivery rate of approximately 5,000. St Michael’s admits about 550 patients a year that includes 100 postnatal transfers. The unit offers the opportunity to gain experience in general neonatal intensive care and in the management of surgical and extremely preterm or complex newborn infants. In addition it supports the regional Feto-maternal medicine department and provides a regional service for neonatal surgery. It is adjacent to the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, which provides all tertiary paediatric subspecialties for the region. Those newborn infants from the South West Region that require subspecialty input (such as nephrology, urology, endocrinology, neurology and pre operative cardiology) are managed within the neonatal unit at St Michael’s when possible. The unit currently has 9 intensive care cots, 6 high dependency cots and 8 special care cots, in addition to a 12 bedded transitional care ward.

An active research programme includes the Sebastian Diamond Children’s Sleep laboratory, a neuroprotective strategies laboratory, multicentre trials (TOBY, INIS, Programs, see NPEU Web and local studies. Trainees are expected to take part in teaching, audit, ongoing research and the supervision and training of junior medical and nursing staff.

The posts at ST2-3 level are for six months and provide excellent experience in management of premature and complex neonates. These posts are suitable for both trainees who are new to neonatology and those seeking more experience with the management of the extremely premature infant and infants with surgical or cardiac lesions.

Other staff

  • 1 Grid trainee in Neonatology
  • 5 Senior trainees (ST6-7)
  • 6 ST2-3 trainees
  • 5 Advanced Neonatal Practitioners

 Educational Opportunities

There are daily multiprofessional teaching sessions, alternate week trainee teaching and the opportunity to attend fetal medicine, genetics, cardiology and other subspecialty clinics by prior arrangement.