Published December 24, 2025 | Updated December 24, 2025
By MedCourse
Useful, relevant, and interesting content for UK Junior Doctors.
About the Author
Dr Joel McCay, Haematology Registrar, Fellow at The London Clinic, and PhD student at Bart’s Cancer Institute
Joel is a haematology registrar working primarily in Northwest London but currently in research at Barts Cancer Institute. He graduated from the University of Southampton in 2014 before undertaking foundation training in Northeast England, core medical training in Southeast London and securing his haematology registrar number in 2019.
He has worked with start-up biotech companies, the British Medical Journal as an editor for their revision resource, as well as worked alongside some of the leading haematology doctors in the country at The London Clinic. His research is in CLL subtypes, and the role of non-coding RNA from extracellular vesicles impacts the cells of the tumour microenvironment. Joel has recently written a book entitled “Passing the FRCPath Part 1 Examination: A Practical Guide for Haematology Registrars”, which is due for release in May 2024. Though primarily a guide for registrars looking to pass their exam, it is a good pocket guide for those interested in a career in haematology.
Courses & Conferences to Attend
I attended a British Society of Haematology registrar-ready course. A few haematology and oncology conferences, like the UK CLL forum, and I signed up for the UCL oncology frontiers mailing list, where they have guest speakers in certain cancer types each month.
I would recommend any of the BSH ones, which are generally pitched at registrar level. I’d also recommend attending the American Society of Haematology meeting, but buying the online pass. It’s quite full on but good for getting a flavour of things.
How to Maximise Your Portfolio
- Don’t focus too much on the application score.
Though it might feel like the highest possible score is the best thing to cement your chances of getting a reg number, this isn’t reality.
The application weighs heavily on the interview. A sensible approach would be to score where you can best and easiest put you near the mean pre-interview score from previous years. It’s also wise to look up these scores to get an idea of where you are or need to get to.
- Work out which areas you can score on efficiently.
Carrying on from point 1, don’t stress about not having a PhD in the postgraduate domain. There’s nothing you can do about that. Work on the areas you can quickly and effectively score on. I remember attending courses on formal teaching equating to more than 7 days, which scored me an extra 7 points! These courses are things like teaching the teacher. I did one by Oxford Medical, but there are loads. They vary from day courses to some that are distance learning, extensive ones.
They can be expensive, but you can use your study budget toward some of them, and they’re a doddle in terms of scoring easy points.
- Make your audits/ projects haematology-based.
It’s all well and good scoring full marks on the audit domain, but if it’s on VTE assessment in care of the elderly patient, it’s probably not going to be discussed in the haematology interview.
I would suggest you do a haematology audit for a few reasons. Firstly, you can talk about it in the interview with people who are haematologists and will be more interested in this. Secondly, if you haven’t got a haematology post, it will give you an intro to the haematology team at your hospital. We’re very friendly and approachable, and most of us are very eager to teach and advise applicants. Finally, if it’s a really good audiobook, you could present it or even publish it. This leads to more application points and is good for the CV long term.
- Subscribe to BSH or other haem organisations.
I think this is a pretty easy and useful way to build your knowledge around haematology. It’s cheap (£70/ year) and tax-deductible. With that membership, you get a monthly journal, which I would recommend reading one or two articles, not the whole thing. As an ST6, I still only read the things of interest to me in these journals. And I also don’t dissect them like I’m in a journal club. Pick out the sailing points, the interesting day and the main conclusions. There’s a good chance your interview won’t know (or care) about the methods in a certain paper they probably have slim read too.
As well as journals, they have regular emails about changes to guidelines, courses and conferences. The BSH registrar-ready course is a great intro for the IMT2/3 level. These will all be discounted for members, and a good way to network.
On the subject of networking, I would recommend you start doing this early on. As well as chatting to people, I’d say make a LinkedIn account to build your professional profile. I’d say less than 15% of doctors have one, and I’ve been able to get employment from people just messaging me on their own.
You should be proud of your achievements and showcase yourself on platforms like this.
Making the Most of Your Day Job
Speak to your haem registrars and ask to attend morphology training and lab time. This is usually after the ward rounds. Go to haem clinics, especially new patient clinics. Try and see some bone marrow biopsies, and if lucky, do a few. These are the skills that haem registrars need to have.
Making the Most of Haematology ST3 Placements
Learn Morphology and Haematology Skills
In my opinion, this is what almost guarantees candidates a successful interview. If your interviewer has seen that you’ve attended morphology courses or made a logbook of blood films you’ve reviewed with a haem reg, they will love that. It will consolidate your learning about haematology and show that you are making steps to learn the specialist skills we use day-to-day.
If you can, attending bone marrow biopsies or understanding why we do them and what we are looking for will also come across well. There are some courses through BSH and certain hospitals like Hammersmith and Marsden that offer morphology and bone marrow skills. They are expensive and probably pitched at ST3 level, but if you have the money to do them and you are committed, I would say they’re worth it.
Finally, I would really stress the importance of trying to be in a haematology job during training. Make friends with the registrars and plan both your diaries for 30 minutes of morphology a week. Obviously, everyone is busy, but half an hour a week every week is more manageable than 2 hours. Better yet, set up a haematology training/ teaching program on morphology and use that in your application to demonstrate commitment to teaching!
What About Non-Haematology ST3 Placements?
Take the time to do something on your days which are quiet or zero days. Don’t come in for a full session, but ask the haem reg for an hour of blood film reviews.
