3 years to move to the UK as a Doctor?!|| PLABs, NHS job hunt and more!

hello guys welcome back to the channel I'm really excited today because this video is one that I've been meaning to film for a long time now it's one that been requested by a number of people and so I believe that's going to be useful and beneficial I am going to be sharing the Journey of how I mooved from Ghana to the UK as a doctor so sit tired and let's do it I'm going to share everything from beginning to the end so don't go anywhere all right so just a bit of background for people who may be are coming across me for the very first time so my name is Gloria Quant I am a doctor I finished um medical school in 2019 so I've been working for the last four years as a doctor I had all of my training so all of my medical school my housemanship everything was in Ghana and then I just moved to the UK um it's been 4 months now so I'm still in UV I'm still fresh to the UK I live in landing and it's been an interesting ride so far I shared on this channel maybe three months ago so I think it was somewhere in August um or beginning of September I can't remember but I shared um the big update big news that have moved and I got quite a number of comments um just from people asking how did you do it how did you go about the process so I thought that this video would um highlight the entire Journey as I mentioned earlier on I had my medical school in Ghana I went to qu University of Science and Technology in Kumasi which I'm very proud to be an alumni of and then afterwards I did something GH called a hous worship which is done in other places in the world as well it's a compulsory um internship program you're working as a doctor but you're working under supervision of specialist so I did that for two years so it was in the middle of my house M that's when my journey to the UK actually began prop this was in 2020 and my friend was basically preparing to um start her UK journey and she was telling me about it now mind you the UK is not a country that I had um fancy to work in or to move to um honestly it wasn't really one that I've been looking to I've been looking to other countries ever since I was in medical school I'd always been one of those people that I knew that I wanted to do my residency or work outside the country at some point in time um so it wasn't a new thing for me but then the UK was definitely not under this but I don't know for some reason as she told me about the and I believe it's God God is the reason but as she told me about the process and everything it just seemed doable it seemed simple I don't know it just kind of spoke to me I was like okay fine let's do it I was like you know I'm going to do it she told me about the entire process and then I did my own research as well did a bit of reading around to see what the process was like and then I decided um towards the ending of 2020 that I was going to move to the UK as a doctor so when it comes to working in the UK as a doctor there are different routes to gain registration on the medical register to work in medicine in any country there are governing bodies that regulate the work that doctors do and you need to be registered and licensed to work in that country so even though medicine is very related like across but the human body is the human body so we have a lot of similarities in the way we practice medicine on a very basic Foundation but then every country and every system like has every country and every region has their own way of doing things they have their own protocols they have their own guidelines and so you can't just kind of up and work in that country just because you've studied medicine in your own country you have to go through their process and get onto their register and basically to do that in the UK and to work in the UK as a doctor they have their own roots and ways that you can do that there the pl route um you can also take some specialist licens and exams different things that you can do but I decided to go for the BL because that's what seemed simple and based on sort of where I was in my career that seemed more reasonable to do and so that's what I did PL stands for professional and linguistic assessments board exams so that's the plab exams and it's theed into two parts there plab one and pl two and that's what I did so to even be able to register to take the plab one exam you need to prove that you can speak English if you have done your training in certain countries you've done your undergraduate degree in certain countries certain universities you are exempt from proving however for Ghana it doesn't matter which university you went in Gana Ghana I think Nigeria as well a lot of other countries you actually have to prove that you can speak English and the two ways that you can do that is by writing the ielt exam or writing the O exam so these two exams are exams that you can write to entally prove that you can speak English so that was the first hle in my journey was take the ielt exam which is what I chose to do because I think it was cheaper than the O exam that was like literally the only reason why I did the I um so with the I is it's divided into four parts there's the reading there's the writing um there's the listening and the speaking section and you can't just get any Mark you need to get um certain marks to be able to be eligible to take the pl exams I think you need to get um at least a band um score of 7.5 and at least seven in each of the sections so this is what you need to do or to get to be able to take the plab exams I wrote my I exam in December of 2020 so that was the very first exam that I did in December of 2020 and thankfully I was able to pass the I exam in terms of um I exam preparations I used about a month or maybe two months I think around two months to prepare for the I exam I use resources online so I used YouTube channels I use I online test where you can get free mo test I'm going to leave it on the screen and also leave it in the description box below all the resources that I use to prepare for my I exam and um thankfully I pass the I exam can be quite tricky because it's not just about knowing how to speak English there's like any exam there's a structure to it and actually the writing section that's where I got my lowest lowest like band but it was still enough to be eligible to write the club exam but it can be a bit tricky sometimes so you need to put in a bit of preparation and the exam is organized by there we can take it with the British Council in um in Ghana so it's quite easy to book a place and book a um test like book the test online it's it's very easy the only thing is that it's gotten quite expensive um over time so yeah as I mentioned to even be able to register or book a place on the plab one um for the pl one exam you need to have pass your I exam and submitted your score report to the GMT when you create your account with them now um the pl one exam itself so as I mentioned the plab exams are the exams that you need to take to prove that you have the skill set and you are basically eligible to work in the UK now the pl one exam is a theoretical exam it is 180 questions 160 180 questions I think it's 180 questions I took it a while ago I forgot it but it's 180 questions and basically they test you across a different array of topics so you have a bit of your basic Sciences like pharmacology and then you have things like Anatomy you have physiology you have a bit of clinical aspect to Internal Medicine surgery it's basically a mix and match of everything you can think about in medicine in a theory paper now booking your black one seat let me tell you guys it's not even a joke so plab one is taking in different countries in the world so you can take it in Ghana you can take it in Nigeria you can take it in Egypt you can take it in South Africa you can take it in the UK you can take it in so many places a theory exam and it's a paper based exam so it's quite easy it's not not it's not quite easy so it's you don't need to move to the UK essentially to take the exam that's my point but getting a place only for the exam is really a fast and furious thing because there's so much demand for the these places and there's not enough like the supply and demand it's just that's not you know so one tip and one advice I'll give is that if you know that you want a place like you want to do the UI thing and you want to take your PL oneand please prepare early please start early write your eye out early enough to be able to create cuz without your eye out you can't book a place at all so write your ey out enough so that as soon as they say their place cuz Places come out sometimes a month before you won't get um places coming out right in the next month I remember the first um when I booked um my PL one I think I booked it for um I booked it in I think January or February and it was against August of 2021 so there was like a long waiting time so that's just essentially it you have to write your a pass your a or o exam and then you will just um book The Place pay for it book it um I'll put the price that it is right now on the screen and then you get a place and then you go and see the AIS and the sorry then you going see the pl one exam so I wrote my PL one test in August of 2021 unfortunately I didn't pass it the first time around which was a Bama like I was so sad that's I tell you that this journey was not as simple and it was not even a breeze like it was not a breeze at all and as I continue to share my journey you will realize the headles and the obstacles that I had at every point in time so um I wrote the pl one I didn't pass it and I was GED I was like wow okay um in all fairness and in all transparency during that time I was doing my second year housemanship and it was quite busy so I didn't have enough time to prepare I didn't have enough I mean I had enough time to prepare but I didn't put in as much effort as I probably could have because I was working it just was tough for me at that point in time um and I I didn't do well in the exam and I didn't make the pass marks so yeah that was that was the that was the hard reality that I was faced with so I had to book again my results came out in September I think in October thankfully they brought out new places for the exam so I booked again and I got a slot for February 2022 um and then yeah prepared for it did my best this time and then thankfully I took it again in February 2022 and I passed I [Music] pass and I remember just like it was so funny because this was december21 I remember I went to Nigeria for my friend's wedding if you go through my old videos you see my Nigeria Vlog I was in when I was Nigeria having fun like I was still steady because I was like no I have to pass this exam like and thanks you to God I pass it so you do need to put in effort into your preparation in terms of resources for the pl one I used an app called plabable that was the only resource that I used but there are other resources out there there's PL keys and different things so PL um the plabable app is a paid app so unfortunately you need to pay for it but I found it really helpful basically it's a question bank but it's not just a question bank so after you the question bank is divided into sections we have Anatomy you have Cardiology you have different sections and there are questions in each of them and after you answer the question they tell you why that answer is the answer and it also leads to a resource sometimes you can maybe see the answer as atation there's a whole like popup that you can click and then now you they will teach you about itation so I really liked it because it's not just about solving questions actually learning as you solve questions and um people often ask how many times should you do PL as many times as you can I did only once because that's just the time I had but I will say that if you're doing it just once just do it well and if you do it well hopefully you should have enough of the information that you need to make a passing the exams but the other resources so you can just you know join groups join study groups I joined a group group that would go over questions so that help with revising questions that I had done so definitely like get a steady group or find ask around online you'll be able to find people that you can't steady for the pl W because it really does go a long way and does help um but yeah it's a story based exam you can study on your own but find people to study with it can help as well then the next head was to write the pl two exam so the pl two exam unlike the pl one is a purely clinical based exam so it's like an OSI exam where you are actually going to prove your skills you're going to do certain things take history like it's like one of your medical school exams um except that it's across everything as well so this exam unlike the pl one where you can take it in different countries you can only take the pl 2 exam in Manchester United Kingdom so you need to come all all the way from whichever country you are I had to go all the way from Ghana to the UK to take the exam and so if you saw my Vlogs from last year you realized I was in the UK briefly and at that time I was actually taking my PL 2 ex I booked my PL 2 exam for September of 2022 and like the pl one exam PL 2 exam is not as difficult to find spots and find places there is still a way time but it's definitely better than the pl one exam um but the clap to exam is way more expensive it's about 900 if not more right now put whatever the the actual value right now is so it's very expensive exam you have 16 stations and basically you can um expect to take histories perform examinations perform certain procedures like um things like canulation um things like you know doing a pap smear like there are different things that you can expect to do you can't expect to do resusitation on Dames on on simman like there are so many different things that you can expect to do so it's a very clinical based exam and you need to practice a lot you need to do things the way they expect to be done in the UK you can't just do things anyhow in terms of the scoring system it is over 12 right and 444 first part is looking at your data Gathering skills second part is looking at your management last part is looking at your interpersonal skills so it's not just about knowing or making a diagnosis so you can go in front of a station and then they ask you something like okay you have a preamble the Preamble says that oh you are um a foundation year two doctor so that's something like a senior housemanship in Ghana so your foundation your two doctor and the patients you're in the GP practice and the patient has chest pain um ask them what their concern so they're expecting you to take a history of the chest pain um R out in your red flag you know what you do like what you do in a real life scenario and um they're not just looking at how you're Gathering your data your clocking your management that you did a you made the diagnosis of maybe um angina this where I they're looking at interpersonal skills they're looking at um how did you talk to the patient did you explain did you take your time were you nice did you say sorry when they were in pain like all these little things make up the entirety of what the exam is testing for so it's quite an interesting exam to prepare for um but yeah I basically had a couple of months PR for that exam I absolutely recommend that you practice with people for that exam practice practice practice with people it's so so so important like I can't overemphasize that um the other thing I did to prepare for this exam as well was to do a course so with courses so is called academies there are different acmis that you can sign up with that will prepare you for the CL two exam with the academy that I signed up for essentially um they took us through an online there's an online bit where you we went through the possible scenarios that you can be presented within the exam um and then there was also the part where we got to go to the academy imp person when we arrived in Manchester and you have like the different mannequins and different things that you you can practice with they also organized some mock exams to try and simulate what will happen the real exam so I found that very helpful unfortunately these academies tend to be very expensive I think I paid around 500 or £550 which is so much money after you done the conversion to Ghana cities like BR so not everyone can afford to do it and I do understand but if you can afford to do it I for me I found the help with the mock exam so I mean it's up to you at the end of the day but even if you don't do Academy just make sure that you have people that you are practicing with and so that they can correct your mistakes they can tell you you know you were not smiling enough you were not doing this enough you know it's just very very important very needed so I took my PL to exam in September of 2022 and thankfully I passed that exam and so um the results came out the next month in October 2022 and I was done today is 18th October 2022 and I'm about to check my PL two results I actually thought it was going to come tomorrow like Wednesday and then someone just go a group is that the results out and I'm like wait it was supposed to be tomorrow I'm not prepared I'm not prepared but anyway let's do this right now so I'm on the GMC website I've opened it let's see wow how do I feel I feel good I feel like yeah I've been waiting to see this P for one month now and my confidence is in God and I know it's just going to be pass I can't believe this oh my God I pass do you know what's funny I saw like I saw you know my first one and I failed so I saw that I'm like wait wait what's going on and I just saw PL two pass y now when you pass your plab one and your plab two exams that's nowhere ends you don't just need to pass the exams after that there are still a few checks here here and there that the General Medical Council does to make sure that you are actually eligible to be on their register one of those checks is making sure that you went to the university that you said you went to so they make use of this thing called epic so you have to get epic verified and that's a whole process that I I can't really go into but I had to do that and basically had to write to my university I had to let my University let them know that yes I didn't attend my University from the duration that I said I did and everything checked out um the other thing was that your English language as well you still need to have proof that you can speak English and that proof can be through your a your a should not be older than 2 years for me my was older than 2 years by the time I was actually about it was about 2 years so it wasn't it was just on the mark but the good thing was that if your I was older than 2 years but you just you doing the ual registration bit in the last 3 months of you passing your PL to it was waved off I don't know if it's still going on but that was at my time um but yeah those are the main things um and then you also have to get a certificate from your the medical Council that you are registered to in your home country so for me the medical and dental Council in Ghana I had to get um two certificates from them one certificate stating that I was in good standing meaning that there was no query about my practice I didn't hadn't had any like more practice or any weird thing going on right now in Ghana I in Gand and the second one was to prove that I had completed my housemanship so certificates of completion of your internship of your housemanship usually with the UK to get your full registration onto the council um onto the register they actually need you to have done I think at least 12 month internship um but it depends so I can't really but for me I done 24 months of internship so that was that but I I'll need to clarify that if there's any correction I actually indicate it in the in the listing but those were two things I have to do and then I have to attach and proof of ID and then basically add everything and then submit pay a fee and submit it to the General Medical Council and then once you submitted all of that to them then you they'll go through your application to review everything and once everything checks out you get a email saying that congratulations you are welcome to the UK register which I got in December of 2023 so taada that was amazing I was happy I was delighted but that's not where it at so in the UK the fact that you are licensed to work as a doctor does not automatically Grant you a job the next bit is actually applying for jobs so in the UK unlike maybe places like the US where you have to immediately enter into a Residency program they a bit more flexible they are like Ghana you can finish you finish your housemanship and then you are like a medical officer you can't just do your residency with them when they finish their housemanship most of their gradates actually go straight into residency but some of them decide not to do that so you can be in a non tring role that's what it's called a non trining job a training job is a residency job it means that you're in a job that is aimed towards specialization in a particular specialty but they also have quite a number of non-training jobs that you can do where you are working as a doctor you're working in the department but you are not actually doing the specialization or residency so this was what I decided to apply for because I wanted to work in the system and kind of get used to the system see how things are done before I start my residency or start my training so I started to apply towards um jobs in the NHS so like everywhere else in the world you have the um government based jobs and then you have the private jobs or you can work in the private hospitals so once you have your registration you have your license you can actually decide where you want to work it's not by force to work with the government if you want to work with the private sector once you miss you meet whatever requirements that they have you can get jobs with them and their agencies and things that you can apply towards however I can't speak too much on that CU I didn't go on that route because I prefer to work with the NHS because my aim was to eventually ENT to residency which is only done in the NHS system and so I wanted to get more familiar with that with that there are there's a site that you can apply for jobs different jobs are put up there and the jobs will tell you about the requirements what they looking at their criteria stuff like that if you feel like you meet the criteria or whatever it is you just apply for the job and if they want you or they they think that they interested in you they will invite you for an interview so that was the next Pit and the biggest one of the biggest headles honesty was finding a job finding a job is not a joke at all let me tell you for free it's gotten very competitive over time he wasn't as competitive back in the day but as there's more and more demand a lot of people have been moving lately and they the demand for jobs has definitely gotten higher and did reflect in how much time not just my other people that I know have had to wait to get a job in UNS so I officially got my registration in December but I didn't start applying for jobs in December I started applying for jobs in January of 2023 and then um I did so many applications I got so many rejections so much I went on but finally in June of 2023 after 6 months I think get 6 months 5 6 months roughly of looking for a job I finally got the news and the email that i' always been waiting and praying for which was congratulations you have been selected um come work with us and just thinking back right now is I thank God it was not easy but I really thank God for how far he brought me um so I I was just mentioning the applications are all done online and basically they would ask you a couple of questions you have to put in your work experience you have to put in your skills you have to put in courses you've done you have to put in a supporting statement sometimes write a personal statement there's so many layers to to applying for jobs and maybe if anyone wants that speci video I can make a separate video on that and on my experience with that but I can't go so much into it cuz that will make this video really really long it's already 20 minutes so um yeah you apply for the job you do the interview I did my interviews online so I didn't need to travel to the UK or anything like that it was all done online once I did the interview and once I pass the interview um they made the offer and they give me the job um once you get the job you have to obviously go through the immigration process and immigration bit of it which was not too stressful actually so with that um you apply for a health and care worker visa which is the visa for healthare workers working in the UK coming from abroad so that's the Visa that I'm currently on and you just need to fill in some paperwork here and there I had to also do a TB test I also had to do a police report those were the two other things that I had to work on and once I had those and attached everything I got the Visa and then I was able to move here to the UK and to London when you're going to write the pl to exam I didn't say this but you need to apply for a visitor visa and there's also a whole process you need to show both of fans it's very very a lot and annoying but anyway G way you don't you so I feel like I've been talking so much I hope this video makes sense um but people really wanted it and I also wanted to share and just ttif God's goodness um it really is not an easy journey I think before you start should definitely like you know think about it think about what are your future goals for some people the UK is not really their last stop and simple that to trans country cuz if you worked if you have your PL and youve work in the UK for 1 to 2 years um I don't know for me I think it's NHS but please find out um but you are eligible to work in places like Australia um places like New Zealand are coming up now so different reasons why people move to the UK um different things that people have in mind just make sure that you're making an informed decision because it's not an easy route as well it has its own issues own challenges sometime people don't pass exams on the F some people get denied recess so many things happen um sometimes looking for a job I I thought I was going to find a job in I think when I was in when it was in December I was like I want to move by April of the next year I was like by April I'm out of here bro so that plans won't always you know happen your timeline won't always happen the way you wanted to um but yeah just if anyone is in the process and they currently struggling or anything I really want to like especially if you're applying for jobs and you're not finding like really really want to encourage you cuz it's not easy like it's actually not easy and it's going really competitive lately people sometimes with so many years of experience applying for a job like you that just have maybe two or three years of experience and you're like oh so keep your chain up and be encouraged that you really do people used to tell me this a lot that you need just one yes and it's so true you you literally do just need one yes and I pray that yes comes very soon um so yeah I moved to the UK in August um actually July last week in July but I still work in August and I've been here for 4 months I'm going to make a separate video right after I finish this video just talking about my experience so far talking about the journey so far just kind of like a reflection on what it has been so far just also for myself as a personal diary but I'm going to share it onto YouTube so keep your eyes out for that video and if you have any questions at all any followup videos that you'd like me to make based on this video just let me know and I will be um happy to you know share those videos and do those videos in time so yeah I'm going to try and be more consistent I know I'm always making this promise but I really I'm going to try I have some really exciting videos to share so please subscribe I have a travel travel Vlogs coming up I have some videos that I really want to put in and work and and share in in um this month of December so please if you came across this video and you like my vibe you want to hear more about my journey please please please subscribe and I will see you in the next one all right then cheers bye

Channel: Gloria Quansah

Views: 1,676

Keywords: moving abroad, moving to the UK, moving to london, moving to the UK as an IMG, IMG diaries, PLAB 1, PLAB 2, PLAB 1 in Ghana, moving from ghana to the UK as a doctor, challenges moving abroad

Id: rf34MuIhzQU

Length: 31min 19sec (1879 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 10 2023