The first week of FY1 is ninety percent logistics, and logistics respond beautifully to checklists. Handle the items below on schedule and by Friday the job's scaffolding exists, leaving your attention where it belongs, on patients and on learning the ward. Print this, or keep it open; ticking things is the point.
Before day one
IT access confirmed: smartcard, system logins, email, e-portfolio (Horus or Turas) activated; chase induction if any credential is missing, because day one without logins is a lost day. Phone set up around the actual jobs: local antimicrobial guidance via MicroGuide or your trust's equivalent, the induction handbook or app, a cited clinical reference (askiatroX), a calculator set, escalation and switchboard numbers saved; the full reasoning is at /blog/starting-fy1-2026-resources-on-my-phone. Practicalities: route and parking or transport tested, ID badge arrangements known, comfortable shoes bought without irony, food for the first shifts planned. Paperwork: contract signed, occupational health complete, GMC registration and indemnity arrangements confirmed. And one evening of the safety core: ABCDE rehearsed until fluent, your life-support algorithms refreshed, the escalation reflex pre-decided, if wondering, call.
Day one
Find, physically: your wards, the mess, toilets, water, the doctors' office, where the crash trolley lives. Meet, and write down: your SHO, registrar and consultant by name and contact route, the ward manager and senior nurses, the pharmacist, who will save you repeatedly, and how the night team is reached. Learn the machinery: how jobs are handed over here, where lists live, how bloods and imaging are requested and chased, how discharge summaries work on this system, what the bleep etiquette is. Locate the local law: intranet guidelines, the fluid and VTE policies, the sepsis pathway, the hypoglycaemia protocol, bookmark them now, mid-emergency is the wrong moment to start searching. And end the day by writing tomorrow's questions down; a running questions list is the week's best learning tool.
By the end of week one
Systems: you can independently run the daily loop, list, round, jobs, requests, results, referrals, discharge letters, slowly is fine; independently is the goal. People: you have introduced yourself to the wider team, know which seniors welcome questions (most), and have joined the cohort group chat and found the mess. Safety: you know the escalation criteria on your early warning system, have located outreach, and have made at least one senior call using structure, because the first one is the hardest and it should not happen first in a crisis: /blog/how-to-ask-a-senior-for-help-new-doctors. Learning: your questions list is alive, the answers are being captured with sources rather than evaporating, and the habit of two-minute learning capture has started, the loop that will quietly turn this year into evidence and expertise: /blog/turn-first-year-doctor-into-cpd-portfolio-evidence. Admin: exception reporting understood, rota checked against the contract, first pay arrangements confirmed. And the person: you have eaten daily, slept adequately more nights than not, and told someone outside medicine how it is actually going.
What deliberately is not on this list
Being clinically impressive; knowing things without checking; staying late to seem committed; reading textbooks cover to cover. Week one has one clinical objective, safe and escalating, and one professional objective, scaffolding built. Everything else is the year's work, not the week's: the wider orientation is at /blog/starting-fy1-august-2026-what-every-new-doctor-should-know.
Frequently asked questions
What if induction is poor and half of this is not provided?
Common, sadly, and the checklist becomes your induction: chase IT relentlessly, extract the local knowledge from the SHO and the nurses, and escalate missing critical access to the guardian or foundation team without embarrassment.
First on call is in week one; is that survivable?
Yes, prepared: the dedicated guide is at /blog/your-first-medical-on-call-new-doctors-guide, and the preparation is one evening. The single most protective item is knowing your escalation numbers and using them early.
What if I'm starting on nights or on call in week one?
Front-load ruthlessly: the before-day-one list becomes non-negotiable, the on-call guide at /blog/your-first-medical-on-call-new-doctors-guide is your evening's reading, and your first hour on shift is spent confirming escalation contacts and where the sick patients are. The rest of the checklist waits for daylight without harm.
Who should I ask for the local knowledge no document contains?
The ward's senior nurses and the outgoing FY1s, in that order: between them they hold the real map, which consultants often do not know they do not know. Buying the outgoing FY1 a coffee for twenty minutes of handover wisdom is the best-value education of the month.
How much clinical reading should week one include?
Almost none by design: the local antimicrobial guide skimmed, the sepsis and hypoglycaemia protocols located, and the escalation list at /blog/ten-cases-every-new-fy1-should-escalate read once. Depth resumes in week two; week one's scarce evenings buy more safety as sleep than as study.