Before training
How to get useful Emergency Medicine experience from a standing start
You do not need an Emergency Department Foundation post to build informed commitment. Aim for achievable exposure to decisions, team processes and patient pathways, then contribute to one useful piece of work.
Arrange a focused taster
Ask the Foundation or postgraduate education team, an ED clinical tutor or a consultant. Request objectives across triage, majors, resus, paediatrics, frailty or ambulatory pathways and handover. Protect confidentiality and local induction requirements.
Follow workflows, not just procedures
Observe how a patient is streamed, assessed, investigated, referred, safety-netted or admitted. Notice how decisions change with crowding, bed availability and new results. This gives more useful interview insight than counting cannulas or airways.
Join a proportionate QI project
Ask the ED QI lead, governance meeting or pharmacist about a current local priority. RCEM's 2026 programmes cover adolescent mental health, older people and time-critical medication, but a local project should follow the problem your department actually has.
Teach a defined learner group
Offer a short session for students, Foundation colleagues, nurses or multidisciplinary staff on an agreed need such as acute assessment, ECGs, safety-netting or human factors. Collect feedback and improve the next session.
Use trainee research networks
TERN runs multicentre EM studies with local collaborators, while PERUKI focuses on paediatric emergency research. Ask what projects are open and what the local role involves before assuming participation or authorship.
Learn from trainee and SAS voices
Speak to current trainees about ACCS placements, exams, nights, recovery and programme variation. EMTA represents trainees; EMSAS represents specialty, specialist and associate specialist doctors. One honest conversation can correct a brochure-level view of the career.
From understanding to practice
Put this topic into an interview answer
Use EM portfolio station for original prompts and an answer structure relevant to this topic.
Explore ACCS Emergency Medicine practiceExplore the Question bank and spoken practice coming at launch.Spoken practice is launching soon. Use the free questions and guides to start preparing now.
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