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  1. Intensive care medicine

    Doctors working in intensive care medicine manage the sickest patients in the hospital: critically ill patients who already have organ dysfunction and organ failure.

    Training usually starts with a five year first degree in medicine, two years foundation doctor training, two years core training (CT1-CT2), followed by five years specialists training (ST3-ST7). This period of training will include your royal college exams. Length of training can vary according to your circumstances.
    Doctors may work up to 48 hours a week. The working hours may sometimes extend beyond the normal working day including early mornings, evenings and weekends. You'll also need to be on call. The basic salary ranges from £29,384 to £34,012. Once you start your specialty training as a doctor in intensive care medicine employed by the NHS, you can expect to earn a salary of at least £40,257, which can increase to between £84,559 and £114,003 as a consultant.
    You'll need excellent communication skills to manage a wide range of relationships with colleagues, and patients and their families. You'll be emotionally resilient, have excellent problem-solving and diagnostic skills and work well in teams and under pressure. You'll also be very organised for the benefit of patients.
    There are approximately 783 doctors training in intensive care medicine (ICM) in NHS, England. In 2021, there were 595 applications for 203 specialty training places. You could develop an interest in cardiac intensive care medicine, echocardiography, neuro intensive care medicine, paediatric intensive care medicine or transfer medicine.

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