The Faculty of Paediatrics at RCPI is the national professional and training body for paediatrics in Ireland, working to ensure the highest standards in child health.
Overview
The Faculty of Paediatrics at RCPI is the national professional and training body for paediatrics in Ireland, working to ensure the highest standards in child health.
Programme Requirements: Courses and Examinations
In addition to supervised clinical training, you must pass the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (MRCPI) examination in Paediatrics. Depending on your year of training in 2023/2024, you will also either participate in the BST Taught Programme or attend a number of mandatory courses.
MRCPI Examination in Paediatrics
BST General Paediatrics Year 1 in
2023/2024 – BST Taught Programme
BST General Paediatrics Year 2 in
2023/2024 – BST General Paediatrics
Mandatory Courses
Basic Specialist Training (BST)
Requirements
The entry requirements for BST programmes are:
- You must have completed your internship by the start date of the programme
- You must be currently or previously registered on one of the divisions of the Irish Medical Council, or provide proof of eligibility for registration
- You must have proof of competency in the English language in line with HSE specifications (PDF, 506KB)
Places in BST are allocated in the first instance to applicants who, at the time of application, are citizens of Ireland or nationals of another Member State of the European Union, Stamp 4 Visa Holders and UK
nationals. We are awaiting updated guidance from the HSE/NDTP on this process, and once we receive this it will be published here. Read more about the Allocation of Places on Specialist Training Programmes (PDF, 623KB)
FAQs
Dates required
You can apply for BST by clicking on the link on the Applying to Basic Specialist Training page on our website. The link will only be available while applications are open during the dates given above.
There are 4 BST programmes. For more information on each programme, please follow the relevant link:
General Internal Medicine
General Paediatrics
Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Histopathology
Higher Specialist Training (HST)
Requirements
- Have completed a Medical Degree.
- Be eligible for inclusion on the Trainee Specialist Division of the Medical Council Register at the time of application.
- Have completed your Internship before the start of the training programme in July.
- For non-Ireland, -UK, -Australia, -Canada, -New Zealand or -US: An IELTS certificate OR the Occupational English Test (OET).
FAQs
You can apply to Higher Specialist Training in 28 programmes across our Faculties. You can apply to more than one programme, although we advise against applying to more than two programmes.
You must submit a separate application for each programme. The application process is fully online –you don’t need to submit a paper application.
Make sure you read the entry requirements for your chosen programme carefully. The entry requirements are listed in the HST Curriculum for each programme.
Shortlisting for interviews (where necessary) will take place in December/January. Interviews for shortlisted candidates take place in February.
As there are a limited number of places in HST, entry to each programme is competitive.
- Certificate of completion of Basic Specialist Training (BST)
- Evidence of postgraduate qualification such as MRCPI
- Proof of Irish Medical Council registration / eligibility for registration
- Proof of English language competency
- Two Appraisal Forms
- Passport identity page Stamp 4 Residency Permit (if applicable to you)
There are three ways to confirm your eligibility for Irish Medical Council (IMC) registration:
- Submit your certificate of current or previous registration on one of the divisions of the IMC.
- If you are not currently and have never been registered on one of the divisions of the IMC, you may be considered automatically eligible for registration if you completed your medical degree in one of a list of EU countries.
- If you do not fall into either category 1 or 2 above, please contact the IMC and ask them to provide a letter confirming your eligibility for registration and submit this with your application.
If you completed BST but do not yet have your BST Certificate, please apply now by contacting Helpdesk@rcpi.ie.
The online application form will ask you for the following information:
- employment and training history
- clinical practice - experience to date
- academic achievements
- teaching experience
- audit experience
- research experience
- presentations to date
- publications to date
- management and leadership experience
- career objectives
- contact details of two references, one of whom must be your most recent supervising consultant (must be same two references who have completed your Appraisal Forms)
Please note you are not required to submit additional documents related to the above. Please be brief in describing only relevant experience under each of the headings on the application form.
Please note that formatting (paragraphs, special characters, bullet points, spacing etc.) will not copy over to your final application. All free text boxes are limited to 500 characters (letters/spaces etc).
Interview details will be posted in the Current Applications box on the website.
Please visit the RCPI's Entry Guidance and Advice section for information on how scores are allocated for your application and interview.
The RCPI have a dedicated team to help you through your Higher Specialist Training, available to deal with any questions you may have. Contact RCPI via helpdesk@rcpi.ie.