To ask doctors for your experience

[MumofDoctor]

Name changed but I’ve been here years.

My DS is just about to start his A-levels and is determined to be a doctor. This is a realistic goal given his grades, but he hasn’t talked to any real life doctors (watching Grey’s Anatomy end to end multiple times doesn’t count, right?!). I know things have been very different in recent months, but could you share your experience of training and working as a doctor prior to COVID? He thinks he’d like to work either in paediatrics or as a psychiatrist but we’d be interested in hearing from people in any specialty. His dad has lent him This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay but he hasn’t got around to reading it yet. He’s starting volunteering in a hospital next week but I doubt he’ll be talking to any doctors.

Lots of specialties in medicine.
Work experience and being flexible with choice of career within medicine long term is important. I don't necessarily think you have to be super clever to be a good doctor. UCL offered 3 Cs to some of my friends at A level for entry to medical school. You do have to like people and be very good at communicating with them.

I don't know. It's OK. My friends from uni who didn't do medicine earn more and have nice offices with windows and Christmas bonuses and all the bank holidays off. But it could be worse.

Also (as we get towards the end of the school holidays), if he wants kids then I suggest that he marries a teacher to look after them in the holidays.

Any contact with the human body and its functions is good; he could also volunteer at a care home. Look on medical school websites for a list of books/ podcasts for interested applicants.

It’s a long training programme and you do have to learn a lot, but if he’s reasonably diligent he shouldn’t have too much trouble as an undergraduate.
As a job
Pros- there’s a job for everyone. If you want to spend a lot of time with people, psychiatry, paediatrics, GP. Technology, physics, high pressure situations - ICU. Nice 9-5 job without much patient contact - pathology, public health.
-it’s interesting 🙂
-satisfaction of working as part of a team to get something difficult done
-guaranteed a reasonably well-paid job more or less anywhere in the country, once you have a bit of experience under your belt
-helping people, mostly satisfying
-if you want to leave medicine, there tend to be a good number of other careers you can step sideways into.

Cons
-long hours and overtime are inevitable, especially for the first few years. Can’t be avoided unless you have a serious health issue really.
-difficult to book leave for weddings, holidays etc. Changing jobs frequently doesn’t help with this.
-for a few years you are pretty much at the mercy of the postgraduate deanery, and can be assigned jobs you may not want in locations that don’t suit.
-in early years-stress, busy wards, lots of colleagues wanting you to sort their issue urgently while you frantically try to work out what the priority is.
-while in training, so at least the first 5 years postgrad, you have to jump through a lot of hoops to show progress in training. Begging consultants to fill in assessments, doing audits on your days off, presentations for conferences, etc etc. It’s stressful, and particularly irritating if you’re still obliged to do it in your thirties (as all paediatricians will be for example).
-Sick patients are scary, especially at first.
-pay isn’t fantastic, when you take into account the nights, many years of training etc.

Overall I like it and will be sticking around. Covid hasn’t helped my QOL at work sadly, but maybe things will be better someday soon.

Great idea for a thread @MumofDoctor. Ds is slightly younger and also pondering on medicine.

Thanks @greenmacaron that’s really helpful.

Read House of God. It's true. Watch Cardiac Arrest, similar. I remain a happy medic but no longer in the UK/NHS.

Hopeful bump

I’m an anaesthetic registrar with a couple more years to go until I finish training. I love my job but I worry that many medical students go into it having a very idealistic view of what the job actually entails!

I’m mid 30s and still working shifts, normal days are 10 hours, long days and nights are 12.5. Have little control over where you work when you are training and have to move a lot during it. Yes it will be better once I’m a consultant but it is hard! And missing out on events because of work does take its toll. The shifts are better than they were in some ways but it is draining and add on studying for postgraduate exams, portfolio work and general admin - it takes a lot of time!!

I would say to him to try and chat to some junior doctors to see what life is actually like when you are in training because it is a long hard slog. I have nearly left on several occasions because it has been hard and I wonder how much easier life would be if I had a more normal job.

But I love what I do and it is a privilege to look after my patients and occasionally I get to make a real difference to someone.

A junior anaesthetist I worked with until recently has just released a book. I’m told it’s really good but I’m waiting for Amazon to deliver mine 😆

Ed Patrick - Catch your breath.

I’m not a doctor but I’ve worked in A&E and theatres for years now.

It’s a long training program. The F1 and F2 years are hard going.

But Unlike the old days, the support now for the junior doctors is amazing, and in my trust I know there are consultants.

Paediatrics is rewarding, but when it goes wrong, it can go very wrong.

There’s so many specialities and opportunities. I’d say go for it!

@countbackfromten Anaesthetic registrars are the best doctors out there!

Thanks for all you do and have done during covid 😘 x

Ahhh thank you @WhatisanODP! We couldn’t do it without ODPs, honestly would be lost without them! x

Hmmmm I’m married to a Consultant and we are both adamant that ds will not go into medicine!
Dh has had all the passion for his job beaten out of him by the last 10-12 years of the NHS being dismantled.
Medicine is a long long road, qualifying from medical school is only the beginning of it. There will be years of seriously exhausting work, sacrifice and constant moving around. Working in a system that isn’t particularly working!
When you finally reach Consultant level, it isn’t actually that financially rewarding for what is required.
Of all dh’s friends from his Uni gang (most of them were not medics), he earns the least money but works the hardest.
I know it’s not all about money but there is a massive problem with retaining staff in the NHS at the moment - for good reasons!

@countbackfromten and we couldn’t do it without you lot! If your in the Thames Valley deanery I’ll keep my eyes out for you 😆 x

I am an FY2 doctor (so in my second year post med school). I love my job. It is hard. On calls can be pretty impossible work load wise. BUT 90% of the time it is interesting, stimulating, busy; I get to work with colleagues who are motivated and driven, there is always something new to learn and I really enjoy working with (almost all) the patients. To me the job satisfaction makes the hard bits worth it. Some of my rotations have been better than others, but that's more because they were more closely matched to my own interests.

Re audits and tick boxing; true but (at least so far) absolutely manageable and I don't spend my days off doing it. We get 3 hours per week dedicated to audits/portfolio stuff/any other personal development which has been enough to get it done for me.

I would wholeheartedly recommend it. But only if it is actually him who wants to do it. I have had many friends at med school who essentially became doctors because their parents had pushed them into it and I don't think most of them share my perception of the job.

I think it's great, I've been qualified for 26 years now! There's lots of different jobs and roles, yes the first few years are a bit relentless but I would sa worth it.
I do have 3 older teens/twenties and not one of them has ever considered it 😆 They say it's too hard work. There is a lot that you do for the love of the job, not the pay

I think most youngsters with aspirations to be a doctor think about paediatrics, GP, surgeon, psychiatrist, pathology, obstetrics and gynaecology as these are the types of doctors most commonly seen in the media.

It's worth looking at other specialities as well to get a sense of the breadth of options open to doctors. For instance dermatology, clinical genetics, urology, ophthalmology, neurology, palliative care, renal medicine, care of the elderly, cardiology etc etc...

After their F1 and F2 years, training tends to be specialty specific. Decisions should not only take into account what interests him, but also where and how he would like to eventually work. Some Specialities are more family friendly than others. Some specialities are only based in secondary or tertiary level hospitals.

Unless hes likely to emigrate- the advice would be avoid.

Unfortunately it becomes more difficult to give good care to your patients everyday.
Its hard having to watch it every day.

In the hospital you watch the Consultants being sent on ward rounds to see who they can send home due to bed pressures. Sick people who are not yet well enough. They are generally admitted back again within a day or so.
Every winter new wards are opened to cope with the bed pressures.

When I trained, they would randomly pick doctors and nurses from other wards to staff them, leaving other wards short. The wasnt a Consultant in charge- though there was supposed to be.

Winter pressures isnt just December and January, instead is around the duration of half a year. If they want to give good care the UK isnt the place.

Thank you, this is all really helpful. It’s definitely DS’s idea rather than mine or his dad’s.

Hopeful weekend bump