Pre-registration house officer (PRHO), often known as a houseman or house officer, was until 2005 the only job open to medical graduates in the United Kingdom who had just passed their final examinations at medical school and had received their medical degrees.
Newly-qualified doctors are only allowed provisional registration with the General Medical Council, hence their first jobs are prior to full registration with the GMC and these jobs were named pre-registration house officer jobs, and they usually consisted of two six-month jobs; one predominantly involved with general surgery (often being called a house surgeon), and one predominantly involved with general medicine (often being called a house physician). PRHO was the lowest grade in the medical hierarchy of qualified doctors in the National Health Service, and was the doctor most often called by nursing staff to see patients on hospital wards, especially at the most unsocial hours of work shifts. After satisfactory work reports in both house jobs the PRHO gained full registration with the General Medical Council, which is a legal requirement to be able to work in all other medical jobs in the UK. Although the PRHO year was taken after graduating from university, the supervision of the PRHO was the responsibility of the medical school from which the PRHO graduated, and a representative of that medical school was responsible for signing the registration forms which go to the General Medical Council to certify that the PRHO year had been completed successfully. After completing the PRHO year, the junior doctors usually became Senior house officers to further their career in the NHS.
Following changes in postgraduate medical education, from 2005, what was the PRHO year now forms the first year of Foundation Training (Foundation Year 1), and trainees during this year now have the job title of Foundation House Officer 1 instead of PRHO.
In other parts of the world, this stage is generally referred to as medical internship.
| Old system | New system (Modernising Medical Careers) | |||
| Year 1: | Pre-registration house officer (PRHO) - one year | Foundation Doctor (FY1 and FY2) - 2 years | ||
| Year 2: | Senior house officer (SHO) a minimum of two years, although often more |
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| Year 3: | Specialty Registrar (StR) in a hospital speciality: minimum six years |
Specialty Registrar (StR) in general practice: three years |
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| Year 4: | Specialist registrar four to six years |
GP registrar- one year | ||
| Year 5: | General practitioner total time in training: 4 years |
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| Years 6-8: | General practitioner total time in training: 5 years |
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| Year 9: | Consultant total time in training: minimum 7-9 years |
Consultant total time in training: minimum 8 years |
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| Optional | Training may be extended by pursuing medical research (usually two-three years), usually with clinical duties as well |
Training is competency based, times shown are a minimum. Training may be extended by obtaining an Academic Clinical Fellowship for research or by dual certification in another speciality. |
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