Background Since 2017, more than 50% of UK doctors have undertaken a ‘Foundation 3 (F3) Year’ training break after completing their foundation programme (the first two years following graduation), rather than immediately enter specialty training. The reasons for, and consequences of, the growing F3 trend are largely unknown. This scoping review presents the current evidence and identifies future research in this field. Methods Following Arksey and O’Malley's guidelines, 12 databases and three UK‐based national postgraduate organisation websites were searched for articles published in English (final searches January 2020). Multiple search terms were used to capture articles relating to the ‘F3’ time‐period, including ‘post‐foundation’ or ‘pre‐specialty’ training. Title, abstract and full‐paper screening selected articles reporting any aspect of F3, including within a wider context (eg postgraduate training breaks), and then underwent mixed‐methods analysis. Results Of 4766 articles identified, 45 were included. All articles were published after 2009; 14/45 (31.1%) were published in 2019. 27 articles reported research, and the remainder were opinion/commentaries. Specific personal (including demographic), professional and organisational factors, particularly the UK postgraduate training structure, are associated with undertaking an F3. The majority of F3 training breaks last 1 year and involve working (clinically or non‐clinically) and/or travel. The decision to undertake an F3 is made either prior to or during foundation training. Evidence regarding the impact of F3 on health care service provision was limited but evenly balanced. Conclusions In summarising the existing F3 evidence, this review has highlighted important issues including health care workforce equality and diversity, training pathway inflexibility and the effect of negative early‐career experiences on subsequent career decisions. More research is needed to understand the financial impact of training breaks on health care service provision, how training programmes must adapt to retain more trainees and the long‐term effects of training breaks, such as F3, on subsequent career progression.

Preparedness for practice has become an international theme within Medical Education: for healthcare systems to maintain their highest clinical standards, junior doctors must "hit the ground running" on beginning work. Despite demonstrating logical, structured assessment and management plans during their undergraduate examinations, many newly qualified doctors report difficulty in translating this theoretical knowledge into the real clinical environment. "Preparedness" must constitute more than the knowledge and skills acquired during medical school. Complexities of the clinical environment overwhelm some junior doctors, who acknowledge that they lack strategies to manage their anxieties, under-confidence and low self-efficacy. If uncontrolled, such negative emotions and behaviors may impede the delivery of time-critical treatment for acutely unwell patients and compound junior doctors' self-doubt, thus impacting future patient encounters. Medical Education often seeks inspiration from other industries for potential solutions to challenges. To address "preparedness for practice," this AMEE Guide highlights sport psychology: elite sportspeople train both physically and psychologically for their discipline. The latter promotes management of negative emotions, distractions and under-confidence, thus optimizing performance despite immense pressures of career-defining moments. Similar techniques might allow junior doctors to optimize patient care, especially within stressful situations. This AMEE Guide introduces the novel conceptual model, PERFORM, which targets the challenges faced by junior doctors on graduation. The model applies pre-performance routines from sport psychology with the self-regulatory processes of metacognition to the clinical context. This model could potentially equip junior doctors, and other healthcare professionals facing similar challenges, with strategies to optimize clinical care under the most difficult circumstances.

E-posters have been increasingly incorporated into medical education conferences over the past few years, but since the disruption to the 'traditional' conference circuit as a result of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 they have become a necessary tool for larger national and international conferences to support ongoing scholarship dissemination. The authors of this article also recognise the potential for smaller-scale e-poster sessions to be organised at local or regional levels to either continue, or establish new, special interest groups and smaller medical education research networks. Our 12 tips article is designed to offer practical advice to support the implementation of local or regional e-poster sessions to potential organisers and is written from the perspective of two medical educational researchers with experience of designing e-posters and organising virtual conferences which include e-poster presentation sessions.easily be adapted between conferences and re-used as opposed to needing re-printing in different sizes/formats to comply with individual conference guidance.Whilst larger conference organisations have the funding and infrastructure to support highly technologically advanced conference platforms, e-poster sessions could be adapted to support scholarly dissemination at local or regional levels using more modest technological options, and in fact could encourage the establishment of new communities of practice within medical education research. We offer our 12 tips to organisers of local/regional e-poster sessions covering the four broad topics of: (a) planning an e-poster session, (b) inviting and instructing presenters, (c) conducting the e-poster session, and (d) sharing experiences with the medical education community. We hope to inspire confidence to utilise e-posters more in the longterm to support more scholarly dissemination, particularly at local and regional levels. Tip 1. Consider Whether An E-Poster Session is Right for Your MeetingE-poster sessions are growing in popularity and may seem more straight-forward than organising oral presentations (or full face-to-face conferences), but before committing to this format consideration needs to be given to whether they suit the purpose of your meeting. Do e-posters cater to the type of information that you would like to disseminate in your meeting, or would oral presentations/workshops be more appropriate? Also consider your likely audience: Will they be able to attend e-poster sessions 'live', or prefer to have asynchronous access to the e-posters? Finally, do you think that the audience will engage with an entirely virtual format, or would they prefer more traditional, face-to-face conference experience? Tip 2. Gather Your Team E-poster sessions require preparation, execution and evaluation, and each of these three broad stages are underpinned by many tasks to ensure success of the event. Whilst achievable by a single individual, this would be put huge demands on one's time and limit the creativity borne out of collaboration. Ideally, a minim...