Specialty specific changes in Genitourinary Medicine

The Genitourinary Medicine curriculum was published in December 2021. For a transition period, you can make a Portfolio application against the high level outcomes in either new curriculum or the previous version.

This option is available until the transition deadline of 31 July 2024.

Specialty specific guidance

We’ve produced guidance documents for each version of the curriculum with the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board.

How to apply

You can apply through your GMC Online account. When choosing your application specialty, please make sure you choose the curriculum version that you wish to be assessed against as the application structure is tailored to the above specialty specific guidance version.

2022 curriculum

Our standards for postgraduate medical curricula are Excellence by design and the framework for Generic professional capabilities. These help postgraduate medical training programmes focus trainee assessment away from an exhaustive list of individual competencies, towards fewer broad capabilities needed to practise safely from your first day as a consultant.

As a result, the 2022 physicianly curricula are outcomes based. This means trainees will be assessed against the fundamental capabilities required of consultants in the working week. These include the general skills which all doctors need to have as well as those needed to carry out all the specific day to day tasks undertaken by a consultant physician (Capabilities in Practice – CiPs).

The Genitourinary Medicine curriculum is made up of six Generic CiPs which are common to all physicianly specialties, eight clinical internal medicine CiPs and eight Specialty CiPs unique to Genitourinary Medicine. 

In demonstrating these capabilities a successful applicant will be awarded specialist registration in Genitourinary Medicine and General (internal) medicine. 

Content shared between all physicianly specialties

There are six CiPs which are shared between all physicianly specialties:

  • CiP 1 – Able to function successfully within NHS organisational and management systems
  • CiP 2 – Able to deal with ethical and legal issues related to clinical practice
  • CiP 3 – Communicates effectively and is able to share decision making, while maintaining appropriate situational awareness, professional behaviour and professional judgement
  • CiP 4 – Is focused on patient safety and delivers effective quality improvement in patient care
  • CiP 5 – Carrying out research and managing data appropriately
  • CiP 6 – Acting as a clinical teacher and clinical supervisor.

Clinical internal medicine content

  • CiP 1 – Managing an acute unselected take
  • CiP 2 – Managing the acute care of patients within a medical specialty service
  • CiP 3 – Providing continuity of care to medical inpatients, including management of comorbidities and cognitive impairment
  • CiP 4 – Managing patients in an outpatient clinic, ambulatory or community setting, including management of long-term conditions
  • CiP 5 – Managing medical problems in patients in other specialties and special cases
  • CiP 6 – Managing multidisciplinary team including effective discharge planning
  • CiP 7 – Delivering effective resuscitation and managing the acutely deteriorating patient
  • CiP 8 – Managing end of life and applying palliative care skills.

Specialty specific content

  • CiP 1 – Managing patients with non-complex GUM presentations in outpatient or community settings
  • CiP 2 – Managing patients with complex GUM presentations in a specialist outpatient or community setting
  • CiP 3 – Providing specialist care for individuals living with HIV in an outpatient or community setting
  • CiP 4 – Providing specialist care for individuals with diagnosed HIV/AIDS in a hospital inpatient setting
  • CiP 5 – Delivering interventions to prevent transmission of HIV, other blood borne viruses and STIs
  • CiP 6 – Supporting early detection of STIs and HIV in all settings
  • CiP 7 – Safeguarding of public health and delivering sexual health/HIV services and information for specific populations in a range of settings
  • CiP 8 – Ability to successfully lead, manage and work with specialist service commissioning in acute and community settings.

Changes in assessment tools

There has been no change to the workplace based assessment methodology. 

Changes in knowledge and skills

GUM is a group 1 specialty and the 2022 curriculum includes internal medicine learning outcomes. This curriculum requires doctors to have the generalist skills to manage the acute unselected take and care of acutely ill patients and a broader skill-base to facilitate more holistic care for patients seen in sexual health.

The requirement to perform skin punch biopsy has been changed from mandatory to recommended.

The Diploma of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (DFSRH) and the letter of competence of subdermal implant insertion (LoC SDI) are no longer mandatory but are recommended. The sexual and reproductive health (SRH) competencies within the curriculum are assessed by alternative and satisfactory methods during GUM/IM training, such as workplace based assessments and the Diploma of Genitourinary Medicine (Dip GUM), which is blueprinted to the GUM curriculum.