How are the grade groups defined?
Trainees in St2 and below are defined as lower, whereas trainees in St3 or SpR posts or above are defined as higher. Exceptions include those specialties where all trainees are defined as higher: chemical pathology, clinical genetics, clinical neurophysiology, histopathology, immunology, medical microbiology and virology, medical ophthalmology, nuclear medicine, occupational medicine, pharmaceutical medicine and public health medicine. Further exceptions include those specialties in which trainees in St3 and below are defined as lower and St4 and above are higher: child and adolescent psychiatry, clinical oncology, clinical radiology, forensic psychiatry, general psychiatry, old age psychiatry, paediatrics, psychiatry of learning disability, psychotherapy, community child health, core psychiatry training and all paediatric and psychiatry sub-specialties. For all specialties trainees in St grades who indicated they were in FTSTA posts were classified as FTSTA; trainees who indicated the
