As an Intensive Care doctor, you will be working with the sickest patients in a hospital environment as well as monitoring those who require care and observational checks that need to be administered outside of a normal ward environment.
Working life
Working as an Intensive Care doctor will mean that you’ll take part in a variety of different tasks during your working day. These can include:
- Assess patients
- Monitor patients
- Review the progress of patients
- Work closely with others including doctors, critical care practitioners, nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists and allied health professionals to provide quality care
- Care for patients who may be at the end of their life and support their family
- Use your clinical skills to treat patients
- Work with the multidisciplinary team and wider colleagues to plan and deliver treatment
As an Intensive Care doctor, you will be working with patients who are experiencing conditions such as:
- Heart failure
- Renal failure
- Liver failure
- Respiratory failure
- Sepsis and septic shock
- Patients involved in trauma
- Patients recovering from surgery
- Acute intoxications and poisoning
- Pregnancy related illness and complications
Requirements
Becoming an Intensive Care doctor requires a medical degree from a medical school which allows registration with the General Medical Council (GMC) at the end of the programme. You will need to be registered as a doctor before you can practice medicine in the UK.
At medical school, you will complete learning through a variety of methods including small group sessions, lectures and by using case studies and real-life experiences.
There are different types of medical degrees. Standard entry medicine is usually five years long, but some universities deliver the programme over six years. While you are studying, you will undertake placements in industry which will help you to build the skills and knowledge that are required for to you to become a doctor.
If you already have a degree, you may be able to study for a four-year postgraduate degree in medicine.
Medical schools set their own entry requirements but the minimum entry requirements for an undergraduate medical programme are typically:
- Five GCSEs (grades A to C or 9 to 4), including English language, maths and science
- Three high grade A levels such as chemistry, biology, maths or physics
- Equivalent qualifications
Each university where there is a medical school will have its preferred entry qualifications displayed on its website, so it’s important to check with them directly which qualifications they will accept. In most cases, the results of an interview and other selection processes are also considered as well as your academic qualifications.
The criteria for acceptance into medical school can change every year so it is important to keep checking the details before you apply to ensure you have the subjects and grades required.
UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) have listings of all medical schools in the UK and their entry requirements so also check here before you apply.
When you apply for medicine, you will also need to demonstrate that you have a good understanding of what a career as a doctor involves and you will need to have some work shadowing experience before you apply. If you are unable to access medical work experience, make sure you have experience of working in a healthcare environment so consider social care or volunteering.
When applying for medicine, universities will look for other skills and values that they know contribute to an excellent candidate for a medical pathway. These skills can include communication, problem solving, empathy, integrity and teamwork. You should give examples of these in your personal statement when you make an application.
Applying for medicine is very competitive and there are always many applications for medical schools. There are a number of tests and stages for your application to pass through before you are offered a placement so make sure you have spent time planning and writing your application before the deadline to ensure you submit a strong application supported by good grades and evidence of your skills and experience.
Degree apprenticeship route
For those interested in becoming a doctor through an apprenticeship route, there is a Medical Doctor Degree Apprenticeship programme now available.
Opportunities to access these apprenticeships are currently very limited and you would need to apply for an apprentice post at an NHS Trust offering this opportunity when these are advertised.
Personal characteristics
To work successfully as an Intensive Care doctor, you need to consider your own personal characteristics. You would need to have the following attributes or similar:
- Be accurate and methodical and have good attention to detail
- Be able to work as part of a team but also be able to use your own initiative
- Be willing to follow procedures
- Be able to work with all people from various backgrounds with different experiences
- Be emotionally resilient
- Be able to work under pressure
Skills required
To work successfully as a Doctor in Emergency Medicine, you need to consider the skills that you have. You would need to demonstrate the following:
- Be well organised and able to plan your time
- Be able to communicate with a variety of people using different methods
- Be able to interpret data
- Be comfortable discussing treatment plans with service users
- To work as part of a team
- Have emotional resilience and a calm temperament
- Work well under pressure
- Have excellent time management skills and an ability to prioritise
What are my chances of starting a career in emergency medicine?
For the application cycle in 2021, there were 595 applications for 203 Intensive Care training places.
How to become an intensive care doctor
Once you have completed your initial medical degree you will then join a paid two-year foundation programme and undertake six placements in six different settings. Once you complete the foundation programme, you are then eligible to apply for paid specialty training in initial Intensive Care training. This training takes a minimum of 3 to 4 years to complete. You will then need to undertake further specialty training before you qualify. If you have family or caring responsibilities, you may be able to undertake this training on a part time basis.
Further training and development opportunities
Once qualified and registered as a Intensive Care doctor, you can continue to develop your career over time. You’ll have access to a yearly continuing professional development (CPD) check-in where you can discuss any additional training needs or qualifications you would like to achieve.
Once you have experience as an Intensive Care Doctor, you can specialise in a number of different areas including anaesthetics, emergency medicine or an acute medical specialty. You could also use your skills to teach medical students or postgraduate students during their training or become a researcher working with universities to further develop innovations in this field of medicine.
Pay and benefits
Doctors working in Intensive Care in the NHS can work at any time during the day or night and also work evenings, weekends and bank holidays as emergency medicine is a 24/7 service.
You will start to earn a salary once you start your foundation training on graduation from medical school. Current salary ranges for foundation and specialty training, consultants and other doctors can be found here: Pay for doctors | Health Careers. Other benefits of working as a doctor include access to a pension scheme, health service discounts such as a Blue Light Card and annual leave entitlement and flexible or part time working.