Renal Medicine with General Internal Medicine (GIM) CESR Portfolio Guide
Complete guide to the Renal Medicine with General Internal Medicine (GIM) Portfolio Pathway: 20 Capabilities in Practice (CiPs), 3 evidence sections, and a 5-year currency window. Based on official GMC Specialty Specific Guidance, published by Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board (JRCPTB).
SSG Version: 04/02/2025
Capabilities in Practice (CiPs)
The Renal Medicine with General Internal Medicine (GIM) SSG defines 20 Capabilities in Practice (CiPs) that Portfolio Pathway applicants must demonstrate competence in.
Able to function successfully within NHS organisational and management systems
Generic Capabilities in Practice
- Aware of, and adheres to, the GMC professional requirements
- Aware of public health issues including population health, social determinants of health and global health perspectives
- Demonstrates effective clinical leadership
- Demonstrates promotion of an open and transparent culture
- Keeps up to date through learning and teaching
- Demonstrates engagement in career planning
- Demonstrates capabilities in dealing with complexity and uncertainty
- Aware of the role and processes for commissioning
- Aware of the need to use resources wisely
Able to deal with ethical and legal issues related to clinical practice
Generic Capabilities in Practice
- Aware of national legislation and legal responsibilities, including safeguarding vulnerable groups
- Behaves in accordance with ethical and legal requirements
- Demonstrates ability to offer apology or explanation when appropriate
- Demonstrate ability to lead the clinical team in ensuring that ethical and legal factors are considered openly and consistently
Communicates effectively and is able to share decision making, while maintaining appropriate situational awareness, professional behaviour and professional judgement
Generic Capabilities in Practice
- Communicates clearly with patients and carers in a variety of settings
- Communicates effectively with clinical and other professional colleagues
- Identifies and manages barriers to communication (e.g. cognitive impairment, speech and hearing problems, capacity issues)
- Demonstrates effective consultation skills including effective verbal and non-verbal interpersonal skills
- Shares decision making by informing the patient, prioritising the patient’s goals and wishes, and respecting the patient’s beliefs, concerns and expectations
- Shares decision making with children and young people
- Applies management and team working skills appropriately, including influencing, negotiating, re-assessing priorities and effectively managing complex, dynamic situations
Is focussed on patient safety and delivers effective quality improvement in patient care
Generic Capabilities in Practice
- Makes patient safety a priority in clinical practice
- Raises and escalates concerns where there is an issue with patient safety or quality of care
- Demonstrates commitment to learning from patient safety investigations and complaints
- Shares good practice appropriately
- Contributes to and delivers quality improvement
- Understands basic Human Factors principles and practice at individual, team, organisational and system levels
- Understands the importance of non-technical skills and crisis resource management
- Recognises and works within limit of personal competence
- Avoids organising unnecessary investigations or prescribing poorly evidenced treatments
Carries out research and manages data appropriately
Generic Capabilities in Practice
- Manages clinical information / data appropriately
- Understands principles of research and academic writing
- Demonstrates ability to carry out critical appraisal of the literature
- Understands the role of evidence in clinical practice and demonstrates shared decision making with patients
- Understands public health epidemiology and global health patterns
- Demonstrates appropriate knowledge of research methods, including qualitative and quantitative approaches in scientific enquiry
- Demonstrates appropriate knowledge of research principles and concepts and the translation of research into practice
- Follows guidelines on ethical conduct in research and consent for research
- Recognises potential of applied informatics, genomics, stratified risk and personalised medicine and seeks advice for patient benefit when appropriate
Acts as a clinical teacher and clinical supervisor
Generic Capabilities in Practice
- Delivers effective teaching and training to medical students, junior doctors and other healthcare professionals
- Delivers effective feedback with action plan
- Able to supervise less experienced trainees in their clinical assessment and management of patients
- Able to supervise less experienced trainees in carrying out appropriate practical procedures
- Able to act as a clinical supervisor to doctors in earlier stages of training
Managing an acute unselected take
Clinical Capabilities in Practice
- Demonstrates professional behaviour with regard to patients, carers, colleagues and others
- Delivers patient centred care including shared decision making
- Takes a relevant patient history including patient symptoms, concerns, priorities and preferences
- Performs accurate clinical examinations
- Shows appropriate clinical reasoning by analysing physical and psychological findings
- Formulates an appropriate differential diagnosis
- Formulates an appropriate diagnostic and management plan, taking into account patient preferences, and the urgency required
- Explains clinical reasoning behind diagnostic and clinical management decisions to patients/carers/guardians and other colleagues
- Appropriately selects, manages and interprets investigations
- Recognises need to liaise with specialty services and refers where appropriate
Managing the acute care of patients within a medical specialty service
Clinical Capabilities in Practice
- Able to manage patients who have been referred acutely to a specialised medical service as opposed to the acute unselected take
- Demonstrates professional behaviour with regard to patients, carers, colleagues and others
- Delivers patient centred care including shared decision making
- Takes a relevant patient history including patient symptoms, concerns, priorities and preferences
- Performs accurate clinical examinations
- Shows appropriate clinical reasoning by analysing physical and psychological findings
- Formulates an appropriate differential diagnosis
- Formulates an appropriate diagnostic and management plan, taking into account patient preferences, and the urgency required
- Explains clinical reasoning behind diagnostic and clinical management decisions to patients/carers/guardians and other colleagues
- Appropriately selects, manages and interprets investigations
- Demonstrates appropriate continuing management of acute medical illness in a medical specialty setting
- Refers patients appropriately to other specialties as required
Providing continuity of care to medical inpatients, including management of comorbidities and cognitive impairment
Clinical Capabilities in Practice
- Demonstrates professional behaviour with regard to patients, carers, colleagues and others
- Delivers patient centred care including shared decision making
- Demonstrates effective consultation skills
- Formulates an appropriate diagnostic and management plan, taking into account patient preferences, and the urgency required
- Explains clinical reasoning behind diagnostic and clinical management decisions to patients/carers/guardians and other colleagues
- Demonstrates appropriate continuing management of acute medical illness inpatients admitted to hospital on an acute unselected take or selected take
- Recognises need to liaise with specialty services and refers where appropriate
- Appropriately manages comorbidities in medial inpatients
- Demonstrates awareness of the quality of patient experience
Managing patients in an outpatient clinic, ambulatory or community setting, including management of long term conditions
Clinical Capabilities in Practice
- Demonstrates professional behaviour with regard to patients, carers, colleagues and others
- Delivers patient centred care including shared decision making
- Demonstrates effective consultation skills
- Formulates an appropriate diagnostic and management plan, taking into account patient preferences
- Explains clinical reasoning behind diagnostic and clinical management decisions to patients/carers/guardians and other colleagues
- Appropriately manages comorbidities in outpatient clinic, ambulatory or community setting
- Demonstrates awareness of the quality of patient experience
Managing medical problems in patients in other specialties and special cases
Clinical Capabilities in Practice
- Demonstrates effective consultation skills (including when in challenging circumstances)
- Demonstrates management of medical problems in inpatients under the care of other specialties
- Demonstrates appropriate and timely liaison with other medical specialty services when required
Managing a multi-disciplinary team including effective discharge planning
Clinical Capabilities in Practice
- Applies management and team working skills appropriately, including influencing, negotiating, continuously re-assessing priorities and effectively managing complex, dynamic situations
- Identifies appropriate discharge plan
- Ensures continuity and coordination of patient care through the appropriate transfer of information demonstrating safe and effective handover
- Effectively estimates length of stay
- Delivers patient centred care including shared decision making
- Recognises the importance of prompt and accurate information sharing with primary care team following hospital discharge
Delivering effective resuscitation and managing the acutely deteriorating patient
Clinical Capabilities in Practice
- Demonstrates prompt assessment of the acutely deteriorating patient, including those who are shocked or unconscious
- Demonstrates the professional requirements and knowledge of legal processes associated with consent for resuscitation
- Participates effectively in decision making with regard to resuscitation decisions, including decisions not to attempt CPR, and involves patients and their families
- Demonstrates competence in carrying out resuscitation
Managing end of life and applying palliative care skills
Clinical Capabilities in Practice
- Identifies patients with limited reversibility of their medical condition and determines palliative and end of life care needs
- Identifies the dying patient and develops an individualised care plan, including anticipatory prescribing at end of life
- Demonstrates effective consultation skills in challenging circumstances
- Demonstrates safe and effective use of syringe pumps in the palliative care population
- Able to manage non complex symptom control including pain
- Facilitates referrals to specialist palliative care across all settings
- Demonstrates compassionate professional behaviour and clinical judgement
Running a Renal ward
Specialty Specific Capabilities in Practice
- Demonstrates professional behaviour with regard to patients, carers, colleagues and others
- Delivers patient centred care including shared decision making
- Demonstrates Clinical Leadership
- Able to prioritise admissions and ensure safe discharge of patients
- Takes a relevant patient history including patient symptoms, concerns, priorities and preferences
- Performs accurate clinical examinations
- Formulates an appropriate diagnostic and management plan, taking into account patient preferences, and the urgency required including provision of urgent dialysis
- Explains clinical reasoning behind diagnostic and clinical management decisions to patients/carers/guardians and other colleagues
- Applies management and team working skills appropriately, including influencing, negotiating, continuously re-assessing priorities and effectively managing complex, dynamic situations
- Identifies patients with limited reversibility of their medical conditions and determines palliative and end of life care needs including appropriateness of provision of dialysis
- Demonstrates appropriate and timely liaison with other specialty services when required
- Demonstrates management of renal problems in inpatients under the care of other specialties
Managing a haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis programme
Specialty Specific Capabilities in Practice
- Demonstrates professional behaviour with regards patients, carers, colleagues and others
- Formulates an appropriate diagnostic and management plan, taking into account patient preferences including access for haemodialysis, workup for renal transplant, and end of life care and withdrawal from dialysis
- Appropriately manages comorbidities in the dialysis unit or outpatient clinic
- Demonstrated knowledge of management of quality, including audit of dialysis equipment and water quality
- Delivers patient centred care including shared decision making and shared care
- Demonstrates effective consultation skills
- Demonstrates awareness of the quality of patient experience
- Demonstrates appropriate and timely liaison with other specialty services
- Recognises the importance of prompt and accurate information sharing with the primary care team
Running an acute renal referral service
Specialty Specific Capabilities in Practice
- Demonstrates professional behaviour with regard to patients, carers, colleagues and others
- Delivers patient centred care including shared decision making
- Demonstrates effective consultation skills including ‘out of hours’ working
- Takes a relevant patient history and accurate clinical examination focused on the referral request and clinical situation.
- Appropriately selects, manages and interprets investigations
- Formulates an appropriate differential diagnosis.
- Formulates an appropriate diagnostic and management plan, taking into account patient preferences, and the urgency required
- Explains clinical reasoning behind diagnostic and clinical management decisions to patients/carers/guardians and other colleagues.
- Demonstrates prompt and accurate information sharing with relevant professionals after the consultation
Managing patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages 1-5
Specialty Specific Capabilities in Practice
- Demonstrates professional behaviour with regards patients, carers, colleagues and others
- Delivers patient centred care including shared decision making and shared care
- Demonstrates effective consultation skills
- Formulates an appropriate diagnostic and management plan, taking into account patient preferences including access for haemodialysis, preparation for peritoneal dialysis and workup for renal transplant.
- Identifies patients with limited reversibility of their medical condition and discusses maximal conservative management of CKD and end of life care needs as appropriate
- Able to conduct an outpatient clinic and support management in the community with the multidisciplinary team
- Demonstrates the use of investigations to assess the cause, severity and reversibility of CKD
- Appropriately manages comorbidities in the outpatient clinic
- Demonstrates awareness of the quality of patient experience
- Demonstrates appropriate and timely liaison with other specialty services including those based in Primary Care
Understanding of subspecialty clinical services
Specialty Specific Capabilities in Practice
- Demonstrates professional behaviour with regards patients, carers, colleagues and others
- Delivers patient centred care including shared decision making
- Demonstrates effective clinical leadership
- Demonstrates appropriate and timely liaison with other specialty services when required
- Demonstrates an understanding of relevant diseases and their treatments
- Demonstrates an understanding of specific investigations including genetic testing and implications of the results.
- Demonstrates an understanding of issues surrounding new therapies, clinic trials and the development of new clinics for specific patient groups
- Demonstrate ability to keep up to date and / or learning from colleagues in other department or units where such a service is in place
- Demonstrates an understanding of particular needs of certain groups (e.g. adolescent transition patients)
Managing renal transplant patients
Specialty Specific Capabilities in Practice
- Demonstrates professional behaviour with regards patients, carers, colleagues and others
- Delivers patient centred care including shared decision making
- Demonstrates an understanding of the fundamentals of renal transplantation and ability to assess recipients and transplant doctors
- Demonstrates effective clinical leadership
- Demonstrates an understanding of the indications for renal transplantation and risk versus benefit
- Demonstrates ability to apply knowledge when caring for acute and chronic transplant recipients including failing renal transplants
- Demonstrates an understanding of live donor assessment
- Demonstrates appropriate and timely liaison with other specialty services when required
Evidence Requirements
The SSG specifies 3 evidence sections. Each section describes what evidence to provide and how to present it.
Structured reports
Nominate a minimum of three referees for the GMC to obtain structured reports from.
What to provide
- Current Head of Department or other senior colleague
- One Internal medicine referee of consultant level
- At least one other report from a colleague working with you at consultant level in your specialty
How to present
Nominate referees in the online application.
Submitting your evidence
Requirements for submitting evidence electronically.
What to provide
- Anonymising (redacting) identifiable information
- Verifying your evidence to confirm its authenticity
- Authenticating overseas qualifications
- Translating any documents not in English
How to present
Provide evidence electronically following the structure in the user guide.
Evidence of training, qualifications, and employment
Evidence of your training as background evidence to allow evaluators to see your whole career pathway.
What to provide
- Primary medical qualification (PMQ)
- Specialist medical qualification(s) (MRCP(UK) and ESENeph or comparable)
- Recent specialist training curriculum or syllabus
- CV
- Employment letters
- Job descriptions
- Rotas
- Appraisal
How to present
Submit electronically under the correct section of your online application.
Index Procedures
18 index procedures require procedural-based assessments (PBAs) with specified minimum assessors and competence levels.
| Procedure | Category | Min PBAs | Min Assessors | Min Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) | Internal Medicine Procedures | — | — | 4 |
| Direct current (DC) cardioversion | Internal Medicine Procedures | — | — | 4 |
| Temporary cardiac pacing using an external device | Internal Medicine Procedures | — | — | 2 |
| Central venous cannulation (internal jugular or subclavian) | Internal Medicine Procedures | — | — | 2 |
| Access to circulation for resuscitation (femoral vein or intraosseous) | Internal Medicine Procedures | — | — | 2 |
| Pleural aspiration for fluid (diagnostic) | Internal Medicine Procedures | — | — | 4 |
| Pleural aspiration (pneumothorax) | Internal Medicine Procedures | — | — | 4 |
| Intercostal drain for pneumothorax | Internal Medicine Procedures | — | — | 2 |
| Intercostal drain for effusion | Internal Medicine Procedures | — | — | 2 |
| Nasogastric (NG) tube | Internal Medicine Procedures | — | — | 4 |
| Ascitic tap | Internal Medicine Procedures | — | — | 4 |
| Abdominal paracentesis | Internal Medicine Procedures | — | — | 2 |
| Lumbar puncture | Internal Medicine Procedures | — | — | 4 |
| Non-tunnelled intravenous dialysis catheters | Specialty Procedures | — | — | 4 |
| Native renal biopsy | Specialty Procedures | — | — | 1 |
| Tunnelled intravenous dialysis catheters | Specialty Procedures | — | — | 1 |
| Non-surgical insertion of peritoneal dialysis catheters | Specialty Procedures | — | — | 1 |
| Transplant renal biopsy | Specialty Procedures | — | — | 1 |
Knowledge Requirements
Primary Path
Evidence of completion of full MRCP(UK) and the European Specialty Examination in Nephrology (ESENeph) or comparable qualification.
Alternative Path
A detailed, thorough and succinct cross-referencing mapping exercise, demonstrating how each and every competency in the qualification has been covered in your own qualifications.
If your specialist medical qualification is from outside the UK, please ensure that you provide the following evidence in addition to your qualification: Training curriculum or examination syllabus, and Formal period assessments completed during training.
Referee Requirements
Referee Reports Required
Recent
- Current Head of Department or other senior colleague with knowledge of the breadth of your clinical activity (ideally Educational Supervisor with at least five years' experience)
- One Internal medicine referee of consultant level who is able to provide comments based on direct observation
- At least one other report from a colleague working with you at consultant level in your specialty
Volume and Assessment Targets
The SSG specifies minimum volume and assessment targets for this specialty.
Acute Care Assessment Tool (ACAT) for GIM
ACAT
Outpatient Care Assessment Tool (OPCAT)
OPCAT
Case-based discussion and/or mini-clinical evaluation exercise (mini-CEX) for GIM
CbD/Mini-CEX
Supervised Learning Events (SLEs) for Renal Specialty CiPs
SLEs
Multiple Consultant Reports (MCR)
MCR
Quality Improvement Project Assessment Tool (QIPAT)
QIPAT
Patient Survey (PS)
Patient Survey
Teaching observation (TO)
Teaching Observation
Multi Source Feedback (MSF)
MSF
Currency Window & Evidence Volume
Currency Window
Years
Evidence of your recent practice will be given more weight to reflect current capabilities and we suggest that approximately 50% of your evidence for a curriculum outcome is drawn from within the last five years of clinical practice (WTE).
Evidence Volume
As a general guide, most applications are expected to include around 100 electronically uploaded documents.
Additional Notes
An application has been made to change the name of General Internal Medicine to Internal Medicine.
Triangulated evidence (evidence comprised of three different sources) will make a stronger application.
Evidence of your recent practice (<within the last five years of clinical practise (WTE)) will be given more weight to reflect current capabilities.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Renal Medicine with General Internal Medicine (GIM) CESR portfolio?
How many framework units does Renal Medicine with General Internal Medicine (GIM) require?
What evidence is required for Renal Medicine with General Internal Medicine (GIM) specialist registration?
How long is the currency window for Renal Medicine with General Internal Medicine (GIM)?
What index procedures are required for Renal Medicine with General Internal Medicine (GIM)?
Related Specialties
Start Your Renal Medicine with General Internal Medicine (GIM) Portfolio
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