To ask if you’re a doctor do you enjoy it?

@stuffedpeppers I can’t imagine thinking it was shit for me, so more junior colleagues shouldn’t complain. Why is this a race to the bottom? Most other posters on here are saying they wouldn’t want to do the job if they qualified today. I dread my children ever following me into this career. It’s going down the drain!

I have literally had consultants tell me the intensity of work is worse than it has ever been. That the medical take would be regularly cleared overnight and everyone could have a rest. Now it’s 30 to be seen in the morning at handover in some hospitals. 30-40 years ago STEMIs went on bed rest +/- died and we can do so much more for people now. More work for everyone than ever. Even 20 years ago apparently lots of EDs could clear the board by 5am.

It’s more competitive than ever. There are no jobs for SHOs. I’m very lucky to be in higher specialty training now, I do not envy my more junior colleagues.

Thank you as a senior for recognising now rubbish it is for more junior colleagues. I hope everything will improve in GP. I’m hospital based and patients don’t realise the pressure that primary care is under.

Yes love my job it’s fascinating and rewarding - a big but coming here. But hate the decrease in pay, recent lack of job security, paying for my own exams. Having to move jobs every 6-12 months around a huge area to different hospitals. Hate not being able to rsvp to weddings as I might be working but no one will give me my next rota so who knows. Hate working in a system where patients suffer because resources are stretched. Hate being told by the public as I make life and death decisions at 3am that I’m greedy and overpaid.

I’m a registrar, my lifestyle will be miles away from consultants in their 40s and 50s. And those in med school now will have it worse than me, lack of training jobs, real terms pay cut, hugely expensive housing.

Ultimately the vast majority of the population would not have the skills or would not want to do my job. And it’s not up to me to subsidise a failing NHS by accepting the biggest real terms pay cut in the public sector.

I have enormous amounts of responsibility and enough experience to say pay us fairly or we will leave for other countries.

Perhaps it would be sensible to start referring to medics by role: physician/speciality and rank, surgeon/speciality and rank. Let's be clear, physicians are usually awarded the title of Dr on an honorary basis not because they submitted a PhD and passed their viva.

Personally, I think anyone with a PhD is more entitled to use the title Dr than a physician.

Back to the subject of the thread the issue seems to be the NHS. Perhaps it's time to abolish it and replace it with something better like in France, Austria, Germany, etc.

Different thing.

Yes most of the time - like any job!
I love watching people get better, return to life - who wouldn't
It is a privilege that people trust me to put their lives in my hands - something I do not take for granted.

Do I like some of the changes in medical education and training - no, I think it has reduced the competitiveness.
Am I tired of residents saying they work too many hours and their on call (ergo 12 hr shift) was exhausting - yes. Would I go back to the hours I did at their stage - no way it was awful. Things have improved but residents do not do 100+ hrs per week of yesteryear and to imply that and use it in their arguments to get sympathy, ignores the progress we have made on doctors working lives and there has been massive progress. However, after covering their work and doing mine for the last 5 days I have a slightly jaundiced view on this!

Would I discourage my children from doing medicine - no, it is a worthwhile fulfilling career but do not expect to get rich on it!

I'm 52, also consultant in super specialised area, so fed up of the job.

Absolutely love doing the medical parts of my job, all the clinical aspects, seeing patients and families is a pleasure and a privilege. The feedback from them is incredibly rewarding and work is always interesting and the team I work with are great.

What I hate and has lead to burnout for me and many others is the constant battle for resource in the current rubbish state of the NHS. Managers making decisions about things they don't understand. The daily bitter fight to try and get what you know your patients need. It's thankless and exhausting.

Well if you work somewhere similar to me, the actual doctors (as most people would understand the term) hold far more responsibility, accountability and provide more leadership than any of the psychologists. And work harder too. Easily worth double the money.

OP - I love my job. The hours and flexibility are far better than I could have imagined. I think my pay is good. We are well resourced. Though like anywhere, in the public sector in particular, there are slackers and shirkers which causes some frustration.

Yes. I qualified in 2000 and have built a very niche career. No way would I stay in the UK if qualifying now.

I love my job - the patient facing bits at least. I’m an anaesthetist and I enjoy giving an anaesthetic and all the bits and pieces that come with it.

I hate that the under funded and understaffed system doesn’t let us do it properly.

I don’t think we’re paid enough for what we do. especially with the cost of exams etc.

Why? I have explained my reasons - there is doctor the title and doctor the job. I have a doctorate but I don’t work as a doctor. I have been treated by someone I thought was a doctor (physicians associate) - the treatment was fine but I was bit unnerved when I found out a few weeks later they weren’t who I thought they were - would have liked to have known from the outset.

https://images.app.goo.gl/uucmfKd9BY9djh228

Goady much!

Are you a doctor? I appreciate you may have a PhD but the job “doctor” is a specific role. This is a very very important distinction for me as a patient. Dentists, vets, and academic have the title doctor but in a hospital the title “dr” has a particular connotation, role, responsibility and expectation.

i am a max fax surgeon, so dental degree then medical degree. Would I do it again? Yes. Would I encourage my children to follow me? No.
I love my job, but I hate the NHS as it is.
Im paid well, but I’ve missed many birthdays, a wedding, things that are really important because I’m on shift, or called in or couldn’t get the holiday time I needed.
I get huge satisfaction from what I do. But there are much easier and less stressful ways of earning a living

It’s been a 25 year love-hate relationship

I’m a GP and there’s a lot that I love about my work. The privilege of being part of my patients’ lives at important times and their community as well is immense. I also have a degree of autonomy over how I work and I am easily able to discuss things with my employers if as a practice we are doing something badly or something isn’t working (not that it can always be changed…)

However the system at the moment is incredibly challenging (the hardest I’ve known in 25years since I graduated) and I wouldn’t want to be starting out - I think the NHS in general and hospitals in particular are a hostile environment for a lot of people currently. It’s very wearing not being able to do the job in the way you want to do it.

I’m not convinced the strikes are all about pay - the conditions for young doctors and their sense of being valued and looked after are not being well-managed. I believe that doctors are not allowed to strike other than on pay though? (Can’t actually remember as I’ve never striked and am not in a union).

I am a doctor, but a psychologist not a medic. I have 7 years of postgrad training, yet earn around half of what my medical colleagues receive. Makes me a bit sad really.
And yes I love my job, but it really is emotionally exhausting some days.

Hahahah! You must be kidding me. I love the patients. I love my teams (mostly) I hate not having enough equipment or staff to do even half what I'm trained to do. Cannot develop any service. Have to constantly fight for anything. Just keeping head above water. And like the PP I am highly highly specialised with a reasonable work life balance (because I am so niche) but many generalists think they can do my job as well as me. Especially in the private sector. I could be paid anything in the world but if I don't have the tools to do what I'm trained to do effectively it's still going to make me ill with stress.

I absolutely love it and feel very grateful to do what I do, but I’m a consultant in a very nice specialty where hours are predictable and work life balance is encouraged. The junior years were brutal and that was before austerity and covid made everything trickier.