Explore practical ways to grow your skills, shape your role, and progress your career as a SAS doctor.
There are a variety of ways you can develop your career as a SAS doctor, and it is often a case of being alert, proactive and willing to work for what you want to achieve.
Find opportunities locally
- Look out for opportunities as they arise, including gaps in local service provision that you could help address by developing your own role and offering to lead on a solution.
- Ensure your Clinical Director (CD) and other senior colleagues are aware that you are keen to develop and grow your role, so they think of you when new opportunities arise.
- Ask your SAS Tutor or Director of Medical Education what is being provided in your region to help develop SAS.
Develop your skills through training
SAS Posts are primarily service provision posts and the employing trust is under no obligation to provide additional paid time for specialty training unless this is agreed in your job plan.
However, this may be able to be negotiated locally if such training will enable the SAS doctor to provide a local service that is currently lacking or needs improvement, for example.
Access SAS development funding
Generic developmental needs (leadership, teaching etc.) can often be provided by SAS development funding, available through local SAS Tutors and/or Health Education regional centres.
Provision of these funds currently varies around the country. NHS Employers outlines that each trust should ensure there is a transparent process for eligible specialty doctors and specialists to access this funding.
You can find country-specific information about accessing funding for SAS professional development in:
Take on leadership responsibilities
- Discuss with your CD if there are any departmental leadership roles you could take on – audit, guidelines, maternity day unit etc.
- Could you manage the rota or organise the departmental teaching?
- If there isn’t a SAS Tutor at your trust, consider asking your local Director of Medical Education about becoming one.
Get involved in education
There are many ways to build your experience in teaching, training and supervision:
- Train to be an educational supervisor, trainer or examiner
- Take part in formal education of undergraduate medical students or allied health professionals
- Ask about local appraiser training (SAS doctor appraisers can appraise consultants as well as other SAS Doctors)
- Train to sit on interview panels
- Get involved in your hospital induction of SAS doctors
You can also look out for generic courses in becoming an educational supervisor, trainer, examiner, leader, mentor, coach.
Find further guidance on see SAS as educators.
Engage with research
There are many ways to engage and contribute to research. You could:
- Contact your local research department to see what research projects there are presently that you could get involved with
- Train to be a local principle investigator for national trials
- Update your Good Clinical Practice eLearning
For advice and further information, including details on postgraduate academic education and training, please visit RCOG research.
Connect with the RCOG
Consider opportunities at the RCOG to acquire additional skills. For example, becoming an RCOG examiner or becoming a Committee member.
We offer a range of awards, grants and prizes, to support your research and to celebrate exceptional contributions to the field of O&G and women’s healthcare more broadly.
Attend events which are designed to support you develop, such as the Annual Professional Development (APD) conference and #NextStage Webinar.