August 2021

July 16, 2020

F3 Resource Hub

Messly’s mission is to support doctors as they seek out a happy and rewarding medical career.

Each year, more and more young trainees are stepping off the treadmill of training to try more flexible and fulfilling career paths. That's most obvious with F2s, where over 70% of you will take an F3 year into 2022.

Even so, you told us that leaving the stability and structure of training to 'go it alone' can feel like jumping into an abyss. The breadth of options is confusing, there's less support available, and you’ll need to figure out so many things for the first time... like your finances, compliance, and appraisals.

To ease this daunting challenge of approaching an F3 year, we've created detailed guides to support you with everything from your initial planning to the specifics of finding work. In this article, we've collected all of those resources into one place.

And if you're planning on locuming full-time, be sure to check out our Locum Doctor Hub for a helpful selection of locum-specific resources as well.

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👉 Our Most Popular Articles

‍❓ To F3 or not to F3

📆 Planning Your F3 Year: A Timeline

💡 Your F3 Options Explained

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👉 Should You Take an F3 Year?

‍❓ To F3 or not to F3: If you’re unsure an F3 year is right for you, this sets out the reasons to take one and the questions to ask yourself before you commit.

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👉 Planning Your F3 Year

📆 Planning Your F3 Year: A Timeline: A detailed guide through all the key steps you should be taking during your F2 year to ensure you can have your dream F3 year when the time comes.

📄 How to Write the Perfect Medical CV for Your F3 Year: Everything you need to get your CV up to scratch as you begin to look for work, to ensure you have the best possible chance of securing the jobs you really want during your F3 year.

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👉 Understanding Your F3 Options

💡 Your F3 Options Explained: A comprehensive guide to the options for your F3 year to help you make the important decisions, from well-trodden paths like locuming and fellowships to more unusual ones like adventure medicine or moving abroad.

❓ Clinical Fellow vs Locum: Which Should I Choose?: A comparison of the various pros and cons of clinical fellow and locum roles for doctors taking an F3 year, and the main considerations you’ll need to make before choosing which path to take for yourself.

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👉 Guides for Being a Locum Doctor

If you decide to locum during your F3 year, these useful guides will help you get started. You can also visit our Locum Doctor Hub to find an extensive list of resources and articles covering everything from managing your finances to finding the best agencies, and locum-specific career advice. Access this for free here.

✨ Your Locum FAQs Answered: We've collated and answered the most common questions which crop up for doctors looking into locuming, and current locums who are looking for support, with additional advice about where to find more information.

💲 Locum Rates: What Can I Expect?: A guide through what you can expect to be paid as a locum, including a general overview of the UK pay rates, as well as an explanation of the pan-London rates.

📱 The New Way to Find Locum Work: An introduction to Messly's new service, which allows you to find the locum work you need quickly and easily on your own terms.

💵 Managing Your Finances as a Locum Doctor: An overview of the key financial issues to consider as an F3 locum, including tax codes, your NHS pension, and getting tax rebates, with specialist advice from our friends at Medics' Money.

🚶♀ A Step-by-Step Guide to Locuming Through an Agency: A helpful step-by-step guide to working with a locum agency, to help you have a positive and successful experience in getting the types of shifts you're looking for.

🙂 What Makes a Good Recruitment Agent: Detailed guidance to help you judge whether a recruiter is a good match for you, and how to know what makes a good recruiter overall.

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👉 Pay, Finances, and Pensions

These articles are still currently being written, but check back here soon to find guides on finances for your F3 year, including how much you can earn as an F3 doctor, your NHS pension, and holiday pay.

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👉 Insurance and Appraisals

🧐 Arranging Your F3 Year Indemnity Insurance: A helpful article explaining why you need medical indemnity insurance for your F3 year, when to start organising it, and how to make sure you have the appropriate cover.

👍 How to Ace Your Annual Appraisal as an F3 Doctor: A guide for keeping a portfolio throughout your year of locum work, and help with how to prepare for your annual appraisal towards the end of your F3 year.

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👉 Starting Work

Specialty-Specific Locum Guides: We've also written a detailed guide for locuming in each of the main specialties, giving you tips on how to settle into each of those departments. These will be especially useful if you haven’t rotated through that specialty in your Foundation Training rotations before.

📖 Tips for Locuming in a New Specialty – Obstetrics and Gynaecology

📖 Tips for Locuming in a New Specialty – General Medicine

📖 Tips for Locuming in a New Specialty – Paediatrics

📖 Tips for Locuming in a New Specialty – General Surgery

📖 Tips for Locuming in a New Specialty – Trauma and Orthopaedics

📖 Tips for Locuming in a New Specialty – Emergency Medicine

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👉 Interviews

🎤 F3 Stories Podcast, Pilot Episode: Listen to our in-depth discussion with Dr Katy Stevenson. Katy is passionate about medical education and widening access to medicine. She's built her F3 year around that passion, securing roles as a Lecturer in Physician Associate Studies, and Clinical Small Group Facilitator, at the University of Plymouth. Here she shares insights into how she went about planning her year, how she secured the roles she really wanted, tips for getting into medical education, and inspiration to make your own F3 year an unforgettable one.

🎤 F3 Stories Podcast, Episode Two: In the second episode of our podcast series, we speak to Dr Amelia Webber, who was a Foundation Trainee in South Yorkshire, then went on to enjoy a successful year of locuming as an F3 in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the North West. On the podcast, Amelia shares her experiences of planning her F3 year, finding locum work, dealing with agencies, and her tips for ensuring an F3 year spent locuming is fulfilling.

💬 F3 Stories Interview: Locuming vs Clinical Fellowship: In this F3 Stories interview, we talk to Gursevak Singh, a current ST3 in Intensive Care Medicine in the North West. He spent his F3 year locuming after Foundation training, then went on to do a clinical fellow job for a year before starting Core Medical Training.

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👉 F3 in Australia and New Zealand

🇳🇿 Your F3 Year in New Zealand: A set of articles providing insights into what life might be like while working as a doctor in Australia and New Zealand, to help you understand your options and make the best choice for where to experience your own F3 year.

✅ How to Get Your Licence to Practice Medicine in New Zealand: A detailed guide through the process for UK-based doctors to secure a licence to practice medicine in New Zealand with the MCNZ.

💬 Interview with Dr Fionnghaile Nixon: An in-depth interview with a doctor originally from Ireland, with medical experience all over the world, who has now settled into New Zealand's Emergency Medicine training programme.

💬 Interview with Dr Ed Matthews: An interview with Dr Ed Matthews, who talked to us about his move to New Zealand for his own F3 year, how he adjusted to life over there when he arrived, and more.

💬 Interview with Dr David Hughes: An interview with the Deputy CMO of Counties Manukau Health, who first moved to New Zealand in 1993, discussing how working as a doctor there can differ from the UK.

💬 My Life as an ICU Trainee in Australia: An interview with an ICU doctor who moved from the UK to Australia, providing insights into the interview process, tips for settling into life overseas, and how the training systems and culture differ down under.

💬 Working in Urgent Care in Auckland: Dr Liam Atkins gives insight into the positive experience he’s had living and working in New Zealand so far, discusses how his job there differs from working for the NHS, and shares why he’s planning on staying out there for the foreseeable future.

💬 My Life as an ED Consultant in Australia: An interview with a doctor who moved to work in Australia, sharing his motivations for leaving the UK, advice for finding a job abroad, how the healthcare system differs from the NHS, and more.

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