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SPECIALTIES
Paediatrics
Paediatric training in the UK — the run-through programme and the MRCPCH.
Paediatrics is a seven-year run-through specialty training programme in the UK, starting at ST1 after the Foundation Programme and leading to a CCT in paediatrics or one of its subspecialties (community child health, neonatology, paediatric cardiology, oncology, and so on). The programme is overseen by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).
The qualifying examination is the Membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (MRCPCH), taken across ST1–ST3. It comprises three written papers (Foundation of Practice; Theory and Science; Applied Knowledge in Practice) and a clinical exam (the MRCPCH Clinical, an OSCE covering history, examination, communication, and acutely unwell child stations).
Paediatrics has its own structural challenges — the rapid expansion of subspecialty work, the role of the children's nurse practitioner, integration with community child health services, and the safeguarding responsibilities that sit with all paediatricians. The RCPCH publishes detailed curriculum and assessment guidance on its website.
Current authoritative resources
About this page
This page is one of a set of medical school and medical careers resources on chrispaton.org, replacing the category landings of New Media Medicine (newmediamedicine.com), an early digital health blog and UK medical school applications community I ran between 2004 and 2014. The original New Media Medicine forum threads — user-generated content from that community — are not republished here; this is original framing written to help current applicants find authoritative information. Always confirm details with the official sources linked above before acting on them.