Renal Medicine

Renal Medicine is an exciting specialty offering the challenge of looking after both acutely ill patients and those with a chronic disease requiring long term care with the help of a multidisciplinary team. The majority of renal physicians receive training as specialist registrars in both Renal and General Internal Medicine, although not all renal physicians (particularly those in tertiary centres) will undertake acute general medical duties. However most general medical problems in renal patients are managed by the Renal team who have a close working relationship with many branches of medicine reflecting the various problems of co-morbidity present in most patients with chronic renal disease.

Most renal physicians will have responsibility for the care of patients with end stage renal failure requiring long term renal replacement therapy either by dialysis or transplantation They also manage patients with a wide variety of general nephrology problems and those with acute renal failure many of whom may require acute renal replacement therapy in the critical care setting. The majority of patients on chronic dialysis are managed in those District General Hospitals which have facilities for chronic haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis; renal transplantation is performed in tertiary centres with most patients continuing long term follow up in the referring hospital. There are many opportunities for research either laboratory based (underlying mechanisms of renal disease, immunology of transplantation); clinical based (examining effects of treatment on various renal conditions), or epidemiological (looking at incidence of various renal diseases in different populations which impact on the planning and delivery of renal services).

The majority of applicants for Specialist Registrar posts will have obtained experience as a Senior House Officer in Renal Medicine although this is not an essential requirement. The SAC has a membership reflecting all aspects of Renal Medicine including an SpR representative. The SAC oversees training, which is organised by the Regional Deaneries, and has introduced a new curriculum and is assisting the JCHMT in the development of new methods of assessment.

Due to regular revisions, arising from changes in the training environment and the requirements of the PMETB, the JRCPTB are currently running various curricula for trainees in each specialty.  All relevant curricula are listed at the bottom of this page under Documents.  Use the filter option on the right-hand side, together with the guidance notes below,  to help you select the correct document.  In summary:

• If you are a run-through (Specialty Registrar [StR]) trainee, you will follow the curricula tagged as ST3+
• If you are an ‘old style’ SpR, you are following the curricula tagged as SpR
• If you enrolled prior to 01/01/03, you will be following the original curricula which are no longer available for download, see note below

Competence Based Curricula and Assessment – StRs

PMETB has received the assessment system (blueprint and RITA/ARCP grid) for Renal Medicine and this has been approved.  

The assessment blueprints show the possible methods that can be used to assess each of the competences in the curriculum. Trainees and trainers should refer to the blueprints for guidance on the appropriate assessment methods for each aspect of the curriculum, and so plan the training programme according to the criteria set by the RITA Decision Aid. It is not expected that all competences will be assessed by all methods, rather that there will be a sampling of competences within a variety of settings, both within formal and workplace-based assessment, from which overall competence acquisition has to be determined.

 Acute care common stem (Medicine) trainees will also follow the ACCS training manual.

Competence Based Curricula – SpR (for trainees enrolling after 1 Jan 2003)

The JCHMT introduced revised curricula for all the medical specialties together with a generic curriculum that applied to all trainees back in 2003. These are competence-based and set out the knowledge, skills and attitudes to be acquired by trainees before they may be awarded a CCT.

Curricula (for trainees enrolling before 1 Jan 2003)