A) WINS: Welcoming International Medical Graduates New to Scotland

Aims to provide you with:

1. Helpful information as you begin your career in the NHS and life in the UK

2. An opportunity to meet other peers in similar circumstances and share wisdom

To join: Please follow link above for instructions.

NHS Scotland have also created a Guide for IMGs: link

Medical Training in Scotland

The Scotland Deanery, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and Scottish Medical Training websites provide invaluable information on recruitment and training.

Career Progression

Our Royal Colleges in Edinburgh (Physicians / Surgeons), Glasgow, and London (Physicians / Surgeons); and the Scotland Deanery, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Websites provide an extensive range of educational events you can choose to attend to enhance your knowledge, skills and competencies for your continuous professional development.

In addition, locally you will have access to:

1. Hospital organised teaching for Foundation Year Doctors

2. Core Medical Training Days and Specialty Specific Training Days

3. Departmental Teaching

(all advertised locally and incorporated into your Rotas)

You may also want to refer to these other useful local resources:

1. South East Scotland Faculty of Clinical Educators

2. Tutorial Booking System

3. NHS Lothian Simulation Program

B) Local NHS Lothian IMG Training and Teaching Opportunities

Wednesdays once a month, via Teams - advertised on WhatsApp Group

In Acute and General Medicine RIE - we are holding small group tutorials fortnightly on Thursdays between 1.30 to 2pm in OPD4 Seminar Room - dates to be advertised. Feel free to drop in. These will cover acute assessment of patients, communication and handover procedures.

C) The Centre for Workforce Supply (CWS) Stay and Thrive programme

Designed to provide comprehensive support to internationally educated staff across NHS Scotland.   Following the enthusiasm and valuable insights shared during our initial Community of Practice meeting in January, as well as the impressive participation of 178 attendees at our first Career Development Step Up Workshop in February, we are committed to sustaining and further enhancing this programme.

We are pleased to confirm dates for our upcoming sessions, and would be grateful if you could disseminate the information within your respective networks:

30th April, 11:00-12:00   Community of Practice – MS Teams 

23rd June, 10:00–15:00 SAVE THE DATE Career Development Step Up Workshop – MS Teams 

If anyone is interested in attending, please ask them to contact  nes.cws@nhs.scot to express their interest. Our team will then provide all necessary meeting links and registration details directly to them.

Furthermore, we will be promoting these events across the CWS IR leads channel, the Medical Network, our Stay and Thrive Viva Engage Network – NES - CWS NHS Scotland Internationally Educated Staff - Stay & Thrive | Community in Viva Engage, as well as the Stay and Thrive Hub Stay & Thrive Programme​.

"Language is a road map of a culture. It tells you where people come from and where they are going." - Rita MacBrown

We can all sometimes get lost in translation and in the intricate nuances of language - accents, differences and barriers.

We in the NHS sometimes forget that the acronyms and terms we use are not a universal language understood by all.

We've put together an acronym 'dictionary' of sorts (in this document below) to help you recognise and understand some that you may come across in your daily work - spoken or written. The Understanding NHS jargon page is also very useful.

This website - 'Spikkin Scots' is well worth a visit and may help you recognise and understand the different dialects across Scotland.