Blog / Writing your application
How to describe your home-country house job on an NHS application
Job titles for early-career doctors differ a lot between countries: intern, house officer, medical officer, resident, junior doctor. A shortlister in the UK may never have worked in your system, so the title alone tells them very little. Your job is to describe what you did clearly, in words they recognise, without changing what the job was.
Keep your title, translate your tasks
Write the title you actually held. Then explain the work in plain NHS language. Don't turn "house officer" into "FY1" or "SHO". Those names refer to specific UK roles, and using one as if it were yours claims something that isn't true. The wording of the employment history is also checked: the NHS Employers standard says employers verify what you put in your application, and discrepancies can be explored at interview.
A small glossary
This is our own list of common translations, not an official one. Use a term only if it describes what you did.
| You might have written | A UK reader will recognise |
|---|---|
| Casualty, emergency room, ER | Emergency department (ED) |
| OPD | Outpatient clinic |
| Admitting patients, taking admission notes | Clerking |
| Rounds | Ward rounds |
| Duty, night duty, on call | On-call or night shifts, with the rota pattern if you know it |
| Attending, senior, specialist | Consultant, if the role matches; otherwise say "senior doctor" |
| Discharge slip, discharge note | Discharge summary |
What to say about each job
For each job, a short paragraph is enough:
- Setting. Type of hospital, size, specialty or rotation.
- Your role. What you were responsible for, for example reviewing patients on the ward, clerking admissions, assisting in theatre.
- Supervision. Who you reported to and how closely you were supervised. The GMC expects doctors to work within the limits of their competence and under suitable supervision, so this tells the reader you understand the idea.
- One real example. A specific thing you did, with an outcome if there was one.
Here is a before and after:
Before: "House officer in medicine, responsible for all aspects of patient care."
After: "Internship in general medicine at a 600-bed teaching hospital. I clerked new admissions, reviewed ward patients daily with the registrar, wrote discharge summaries and attended the weekly mortality meeting. I was on call one night in six."
The second version has facts a reader can picture and a referee can confirm. Only include numbers you are sure about.
Differences from UK practice are normal
Some tasks are done by different people in different systems. If another team did the procedures you'd expect a UK junior doctor to do, say that plainly and describe what you did instead. We explain how to handle this in our post on the procedures and skills question.
Dates and the rest of the form
Your dates, hospital names and titles must match your certificates and what your referees will confirm. Our guide to writing your employment history covers gaps and references. And if you are ever tempted to improve a title to sound more senior, read our post on why honesty matters first.
Common questions
Should I say my house job was equivalent to FY1 or FY2?
Not as a title. Use the title you actually held and describe your duties and level of supervision. Let the reader decide how it compares.
Is it okay to use NHS words such as ward round and clerking?
Yes, for tasks you actually did. Translating your tasks into the words an NHS reader uses is helpful. Changing your job title or grade is not.
What if my role had different responsibilities from a UK junior doctor?
Say so. Describe what you did and what you did not, such as procedures done by another team. Honest differences are normal and are easier to accept than claims that don't hold up.
How much detail should I give about each job?
Enough for a shortlister to see your setting, your responsibilities, how senior the supervision was, and one or two specific things you did. A short paragraph per job is usually enough.
Sources
- GMC, Good medical practice 2024, Domain 1: knowledge, skills and development: https://www.gmc-uk.org/professional-standards/the-professional-standards/good-medical-practice/domain-1-knowledge--skills-and-development
- NHS Employers, employment history and reference checks standard: https://www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/recruit/employment-checks/employment-history-and-reference-checks
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