NHS Doctors do you enjoy your job?

[LakerThanLake]

DD (15) is adamant she wants to be a doctor. She has wanted to be a paediatrician since she was 10 years old and loves anything to do with science and medicine. She is very academic and from the POV I don't think it's unrealistic. She's got bags of empathy but can keep a cool head when things are challenging, all in all probably not bad skills for the profession?

However, we live in England and the NHS seems on its knees, hospitals are understaffed and doctors and nurses work their socks off. It appears that the future of healthcare is bleak in this country?

With all this in mind, if you are a doctor, do you actually enjoy your job? What is it that you like about it and what keeps you going? Are there any positives?

Fuck no.
Culture of blame, a relative pay cut year on year and lots of out of hours work.
A lot of paediatricians are resident overnight as consultants.
Your daughter should think carefully. There's no way I'd do medicine again.

Hello!
I am a junior doctor in general internal medicine and endocrinology (so Hospital based).
I do really like my job, but sometimes I think is it actually worth it.
As a trainee, you are not in control of your life at all. You’re just a figure on a spreadsheet, someone to fill a rota slot.
It’s very hard if you have ties to a specific area or family commitments.
There’s a lot that is terrible. It can be stressful and sometimes feel bloody thankless.
HOWEVER, it’s all I have ever wanted to do and despite all this I think it’s the best job in the world.
It can be very cool at times but is mostly mundane. Definitely don’t go into it for the drama! Those ‘TV’ moments are few and far between and it’s truly the least glamourous job 99% of the time.
Sometimes the endless eportfolio, jumping through hoops for training grinds you down.
Sometimes the understaffing, crazy busy is hideous.
But yes, it’s great.

Following. We hear a lot from Nurses and how awful it is (...and it is, worse in hospitals than it is in primary care), so im interested on Drs opinion

As @OhDearShirley said, paeds consultant is very hands on. I would not want that. When I’m a consultant I expect that to be the end of night shifts.
I can’t do them for much longer.

Dh says no, he used to buy has slowly grown to virtually hate it over the last ten years thanks to the effects of Austerity measures. The reduction in funding throughout this Government’s years in power has made his job utterly miserable.
He feels it will take decades (of a new government that values the NHS) to fix the broken system.

Disclaimer: just started back from mat leave, have 2 kids under 2.5 at home so work feels like a holiday now.

My husband doesn't want our children to follow him into medicine. He wouldn't actively try to stop them but won't encourage it.

I used to. Now the bad days outweigh the good. All my colleagues are thinking of ways to leave

Not a Doctor but have worked in the nhs for years and am familiar with how hard they work and exactly what they're paid. It is not worth it, no way, not even close. Considering how highly trained, competent, hard-working and intelligent most of the drs I've worked with are, it seems like such a waste of talent. They are treated terribly in my opinion.

They could take their talent almost anywhere else and earn 3x as much for half the hours. It's awful.

I'm a peads doctor (not yet a consultant but on a training pathway to get there). I love my job. I love the clinical work, yesterday I was doing paperwork with a baby in my arms.
There's a brilliant mix of intellectual challenge, technical skills (putting needles in small people) and just listening.
There are some parts which are awful, the admin side can be rubbish. As a trainee I can get sent to anyplace within a large catchment area. For example in one of the bigger areas you could be sent to anywhere between and including Margate and Chichester. Its really hard to get a work life balance (and I'm not there yet). Yes I will do nights as a consultant. Most specialties are moving that way. Anaesthetics and ICU are similar to paeds. Surgery is moving that way, and adult medicine is likely to move more towards a higher consultant presence out of hours.
Nearly all specialities have an on call component in some shape or other, I know of a child who saw an ophthalmology (eye doctor) registrar at 10pm on a weekend night last weekend. The registrar discussed with the eye consultant on call (who didn't see the child, but was still involved with their care).
But I love my job all jobs have drawbacks and most days I look forward to going to work and enjoy doing it.
There will always be demand for doctors and while the pay isn't nearly enough for the responsibility and the hours, whatever happens to the NHS doctors and nurses will be needed.
It won't be easy, but if she wants to do it, she absolutely should!

I wouldn’t do it again, I am a hospital consultant and morale is at an all time low.

I’m a barrister, not a doctor, but we have lots of friends in professional fields and to be honest very few want their children to follow them into the field/recommend it to others. I always tell my children not to be a barrister. You work crazy hours, no sick pay, no maternity pay. You will spend holidays working. I do get paid well though, but a lot of barristers don’t. It’s also a very adversarial culture loads of robing room rubbish.

But we have friends who are doctors, vets, teachers, management consultant and I know not one who would recommend their job.

So my advice tell her to win the lottery!

@negomi90 and @jamsandwich1 for your positive accounts, I know I'm probably at risk of conformation bias here but I believe, knowing my dd, that she would make a competent doctor, whatever speciality and really enjoy the doctoring side of things. She's got stamina and doesn't take things too personally but is curious and very driven. I actually also think that being in a system such as the NHS (or similar) would be a plus for her as she does well once settled in a 'system' rather than figuring out a more ad hoc path.

Of course, the job sounds all encompassing. I personally cannot understand how anyone can actually cope with such pressures, not just the responsibility for patients but the pressures of the impossible working conditions, the admin, the expectations.

Are the working really conditions impossible? How do people cope? We have doctors in the wider family in other countries, some older relatives and they all adore their careers. I worry though that studying medicine in England is the path to a very unsustainable life and that this would outweigh all the positives such as the intellectual opportunity and the privilege of helping people.

I do enjoy my job ( surgeon with elderly patients)The best parts are being part of a team, having a very hands on , variable job and being able to make a real difference . But pat and conditions are rubbish , it is incredibly frustrating .

Would I do it again?? Not sure. Interestingly I wanted to do paeds until I did a A and E job. Until you are on the coal face , one doesn’t realise how awful listening to crying children is - I realised that my brain doesn’t work with that level of noise something I didn’t realise as a medical student as you don’t have that experience. I take my hat off to people who can cope with distressed young children and think!

Systems..... ha ha! more like computer says no half the time.
I started a new consultant job this week. No contract for 4 days, no induction, no protocols. A very long wait to speak to anyone in IT. Endless paper based systems , ITsystems that don’t talk to each other...
the highlight was being given a notebook and diary with my name on and a small selection of second hand stationary. At least I felt wanted and welcome by this colleague in admin

Compare this to how a partner in a law or accounting firm would be treated .

I'm a GP and honestly no I don't enjoy it. It's so insanely busy. Every day is so stressful and people are so ungrateful for the care. I'm so sick of Doctor bashing on social media, mumsnet and tabloid newspapers when we are all at breaking point. I can't tell you how much I would discourage my children from following my path.

That sounds dire @olympicsrock and so frustrating. The second hand stationary and notebook are a lovely touch but it shouldn't have to be like that of course. It's all a bit worrying to hear, not just in regard to medicine as a future career but to think that we all are at the mercy of a system that seems incredibly creaky held up by dedicate but probably burnt out medics.

to all of you for replying to my thread and for scarifying so much.

A couple of school mums I know are GPs, one hates it and the other feels burnt out, works 3 day, each day she is at the surgery for 12 hour but gets paid for less hours. She does love the job though but it all seems quite exploitative towards doctors, which is a shame.

*silly typos! scarifycing

I'm a Consultant Surgeon and I honestly love my job.
I've had to work hard. Essentially I up my 20s and early 30s doing 80-90 hour weeks, did a PhD and endless exams. I trained from 21 to 36 years old as a junior doctor moving each year to a different hospital. The exams at expensive and I paid £35k out of my own pocket for books, courses and exams.
I had my kids in my mid 30s and had to employ a nanny when they were young.
But gosh I love it and I love helping people. Getting called in at 3am is hard at my age-but the buzz on the way home when you know you have really saved a life it hard to top!

PS thriving private practice so salary very, very good and extremely enjoyable.

I love just doctoring. I love not knowing what’s going to come through the door, how unendingly surprising people are, picking apart a presentation and finding the diagnosis, working as part of an amazing team towards a common goal.

I hate - political interference, the fact that no politician EVER tells the truth about the reality of what is possible in a publicly funded healthcare system which is free at the point of access and serves a growing and ageing population and the subsequent unrealistic expectations of the users of that service. The unending hoop jumping and bureaucracy. The inefficiency and the tortuous patient journeys created as a result of a commissioner/provider based model and the fragmentation that creates. I hate we’re called heroes then when we act like humans (want to be paid, work flexibly, spend time with our families, have a life) it’s used as a stick to beat us.

And yet….I’ve no idea what else I would do. For me it’s just part of who I am. I occasionally fantasise that my husband gets a huge promotion that means I can leave my job, the stress, the complaints, the sleepless nights, the questions from my children about why everyone else’s mum picks them up every day and I don’t…but I just can’t see that I’d ever really do it. Everything else seems bland in comparison.

I would do everything in my power to dissuade anyone I cared about from entering medicine in the NHS.

My daughter (year11) is possibly looking at medicine. She's doing Biology and chemistry for her A levels but can't decide between English Lit or maths for the third, she prefers English lit but thinks maths might look better for medicine and they might be less likely to take her with English. Any advice?
Sorry for thread hijack op!

I’m a junior doctor. Middle grade trainee in a medical speciality. There are lots of aspects to my job that I enjoy and a fair few bits I love. The days in work fly by and I’m never bored or under stimulated. There is lots of camaraderie and I genuinely enjoy seeing a lot of my colleagues. I’d overall recommend my job to others and if I had my time again, I wouldn’t chose something different.

There are a fair few negatives, to varying degrees. Lots of times it feels like you are wading through poorly organised, bureaucratic mud, where everyone is just trying to survive, minute by minute. Throughout most of your career the pay is pretty poor for the hours you do and the amount of training you have. There is so much additional work you have to do outside of core hours if you want to progress in your career. Being tied to one area of the county will really, really hinder your progress - expect to potentially move a lot.

Main thing though is, I’m not a consultant. The average doctor will spend the majority of their career as one. Being a consultant comes with a huge heap of different stresses I have only seen from the outside, currently.

Overall though, no regrets. DH gets paid more than me, doesn’t have to do any work outside of core hours and has a proper lunch break every day. Yet I’m the one who enjoys their job more.