District General Hospital or Teaching Hospital??

[pharmchick]

Hi all.

Just wanted to get your advice on which you consider to be best for pre registration training.
I'm doing a summer placement at a smaller district general hospital at the moment and am really enjoying it. The staff are great but the place does seem to be rather badly organised. The band 6's seem to be thrown in at the deep end and I guess are not as well supported as they would be in a larger teaching hospital.

I haven't done a placement at a larger teaching hospital yet so I would really appreciate your opinion as to what you think the pros and cons may be for both with regards to the pre reg year and career progression from band 6 up.
Do you think I would loose out by applying to a smaller hospital? Or are larger teaching hospitals the way to go?

Thanks alot for your input

[crit care]

depends on where you feel most comfortable. Some people prefer the smaller hospitals, and others are more at home in a large teaching hospital.

For teaching hospitals, there is the reputation, most teaching hospitals are generally well known, they tend to have a wider variety of specialities and as a rule are bigger and busier. i think where ever you go most band 6's are thrown in at the deep end, as to the support it does depend on the people organising the show. in a teaching hospital, there are generally more people around to ask so it may seem that there is more support in place. The teaching hospitals will generally be more competeitive to get into, but don't let that deter you. you probably ahve just a good a chance of getting in than the others

As for smaller hospitals, its more of a close knit community, so you get to know everyone rather than just be acquaintances. you may not get to see a wide variety of specialities. whichever you aply for i don't think you will lose out in terms of career progression. but i think its often easier to step down to a smaller hospital from a larger hospital than to go the other way. but its where you feel moe comfortable

[Nik]

I did a placement last year at a (relatively) small DGH and enjoyed it a lot - now I'm doing my pre-reg there. I would concur with what crit care said above about knowing all the pharmacy team but I suppose it depends entirely on you. I quite like working at a smaller hosp and although they may not have a huge number of specialties, these can be picked up at other rotational sites, often larger hospitals in the trust. I wouldn't worry too much yet about getting a band 6 job - there's plenty of time !

[pharmchick]

Thanks guys, you've really helped..... appreciate your advice.