A wide-ranging, national work group developed a vision for the medical education continuum. Students, medical specialists in training, doctors not in training as specialists, PhD students, trainers and managers are making concrete recommendations to fundamentally improve the course of training medical students to become medical specialists.

The education continuum concerns the route followed by medical students to become a certified medical practitioner, then eventually a doctor not in training as a specialist and/or PhD to medical specialists in training and finally medical specialist. It is a route of lifelong learning. Transparency, attention and supervision at each of these career steps can help the future medical specialist to make the right choices in the education continuum. This ensures that we properly train the medical specialists of the future. The vision covers all forms of training to medical specialist.

The Advanced Medical Programmes College (CMV) of the NFU took the initiative together with the Medicine Programme Committee (OCG) and student advisors of the NFU, De Jonge Specialist [The Young Specialist], the Promovendi Network Netherlands (PNN) and representatives of the Dutch National Organisation of General Practitioners in Training (LOVAH), Huisartsopleiding Nederland [Dutch General Practitioners Programme], Samenwerkende Opleidingen tot specialist Ouderengeneeskunde (SOON; Collaborative Training Programmes for Geriatricians), Vereniging voor Artsen in opleiding tot Specialist Ouderengeneeskunde (VASON; Association for Doctors training to be Geriatricians) to formulate bullet points on four themes:

  1. The supervision in the students’ personal development and career choice.
  2. The supervision in the personal development and career choice of doctors not in training as a specialist on the workfloor.
  3. Towards a transparent selection process for intake in the advanced medical training.
  4. Future-proof training for medical specialists and the relevance of programme profiles.

The work group now contains representatives of all cluster 1, 2 and 3 programmes. A set of guidelines and a vision document has been published. View the Dutch page to download them (only available in Dutch).