To ask what else I can do with a medical degree

[BelleMarionette]

I'm a doctor, and don't think I can afford to be anymore, with the abysmal pay, conditions, and antisocial hours.

I have been working just to pay childcare for the majority of my career.

I'm looking for something better paid (this should be easy as pay is pretty dire) with flexibility to ideally work from home for some of the week. The difficulty with medicine is that we become so institutionalised that it's hard to see what else there is out there.

Any suggestions for careers that would value my experience? (Registrar, so completed foundation training and several years of speciality training)

Have employed a few ex Doctors over the years. Pharma, research, charities, policy jobs, industry, Medtech, management consulting all open to you... Good luck and hope you find something suitable.

What I would say is that you might have to sacrifice salary for flexibility in the first few years, but still way better than being burnt out.

Clinical research?

Botox
Pharma sales
Research
Medical writing
Disability assessments
Cosmetic surgery assistant/sales etc
Private vaccines
School nurse
Sports team medical person
Health visitor
Occupational therapist
Alternative medicine

I’ve never met a poor Doctor. But it’s whether or not you can stand the stress of a public service job. I know a firefighter who thrives on the stress and lives the job but earns peanuts compared with doctors, dentists or even qualified nurses.

And if you go private sector - you’ll be paying a fortune into a pension that’s worth a lot less than the NHS one, and pay rises are strictly on merit, as are promotions. Not on grade or length of service.
And you can be fired easier but then, you could always go back to medicine.

I used to work with plenty of ex-doctors in medical publishing. Probably lots of WFH opportunities too these days.

I am not sure a struggling doctor should be be choosing general practice as the ‘easy’ route right now... In any case I am guessing they have looked at other branches of Medicine. Each speciality has its own set of exams which are costly, stressful and time-consuming.

OP I would look at Pharma.

What do you think of the suggestions so far?

Agree with @YearsOfStagnation . Hospital work has the on calls but a much better chance of seeing your kids in the evening. In GP you work 11/12 hour days but are paid for 8.

@Gloschick

Why do they work longer hours than they are paid for?
Is this things like paperwork or extra patients?

In my experience it's cultural throughout the entire NHS, regardless of role or organisation. Everyone works large amounts of unpaid overtime. The whole thing is (barely) held together by shreds of staff goodwill, which is getting thinner by the year.

@Cocobutt If you take a salaried GP, officially paid for 8 hours 20 mins. Morning clinic 9-12.45. Fit in home visit somewhere. Maybe a meeting. Afternoon duty doctor shift 1.15pm to 6.30pm. That is already 9.5 hours (eating sandwiches in front if computer). Then you have to do any admin you have generated for the day, then any general admin you have been allocated. Contact patients about any urgent blood results or letters received eg recommending 2 week wait referral etc Partners obviously have business side of things to address as well. Full time equivalent salaries sound good, but most can't hack doing that 5 days a week, hence the 'lazy part time gp' myth.

@Gloschick

Thank you for that.

I didn’t realise that GPs worked so many hours unpaid.

Following

I know of people who went into the city or accounting, straight from med school rather than later on, not sure how easy it would be to do later on.

Years ago I regularly worked with a barrister who had changed careers after being a GP. She was very in demand for clinical negligence cases as her experience and education was an asset. It's still not an easy job. You have to balance income as a self employed barrister and occasionally get last minute instructions that require long hours but she was happy with the career change.

Academia? Posts with one of the Royal Colleges? Research?

I’m assuming you don’t want to move up to being a consultant or move in to the private sector? Shame to leave behind all you’ve trained for.

If you wait until Labour get in they’ll raise doctors pay eventually.

Have you looked into medical education?

Search jobs.ac.uk medicine

all posters who have suggested GP - any other specialty would have to go back down the ladder and do 3/4years of hospital rotations in order to complete GP training. If you are 5years postgrad in another specialty (eg surgery for example), you go back to the basic pay scale of a new doctor and need to complete the training. It’s not “I fancy that specialty so I’ll swap”.

@BelleMarionette I completely sympathise; I’m relying on night nannies, babysitters and full time nursery and I can’t be bothered any more with a) the stress b) the cost; I can’t see it getting any easier with school either as there’s fierce competition for wraparound care here. I don’t see a future in medicine either

I haven’t read the responses, but I work with a large number of doctors in management consultancy.

As a PP said, I think you'd get a much better quality of response if you posted in a doctor-specific forum - PMGUK, or a Facebook group for your specialty if one exists. Even if you post there anonymously, it would help if you say which specialty you're in now and how close you are to CCT.

I'm a GP and very happy with my job - I've built up a portfolio career which pays reasonably well for the hours worked, with less stress than a typical GP job. There are lots of options for fully qualified GPs, including prison medicine, civilian GP work on a military base, a retainer post, medical education, private work, locum work with strict T&Cs...

If you are a GP trainee I'd implore you to keep your head down and get your CCT - there are so many options out there which don't include "traditional" NHS GP partnership or salaried work. If you're a GP trainee you're welcome to PM me.

A few people here have suggested medical copywriting. SIL does this (she is a PhD scientist by training, not a medical doctor). It's reasonably well-paid (FTE is less than I get as a GP, but not awful - £60-70k in her fairly senior role). However it is tremendously stressful and there are lots of deadlines. She works from home some of the time, but still needs to use childcare, and often works once her child is in bed, because the workload is so heavy.

Patent lawyer (specialising in pharmaceutical patents for example ) - can be pretty lucrative (although you would need to train to be lawyer)?

Do NOT move into GP if you want a better work life balance! (quite apart from which, as the OP wil be aware, it could potentially mean a step down in salary and several years more of retraining and various exams).

There's also the issue that it is very difficult to take time out from GP these days. If you are away from working as a GP for more than 18-24 months, you are now required to undergo some retraining, and to work essentially as a very low wage intern before being allowed to fly solo again. This can take a year or more. Hospital medicine has a lot more flexibility to encompass time away from the coal face.

Pathology? I'm a biomed scientist and it's great work life balance. Mon to Friday and no direct contact with patients

There is an alternative careers for drs group on fb - you have to submit your gmc number to join but there are all sorts of ideas on there.
As above pgmuk on fb also a great source of knowledge and advice.
Depending on specialty and how long/how many exams to go it may be worth getting your cct as there are so many more options. Alternatively what about stepping off the training wheel and negotiating an SAS role with fixed hours (pretty sure there is a fb gp for this too! )
Good luck. Working in the nhs is truly crap at the moment and (I'm a GP) I can't contemplate exams and nights with small children. Honestly it's no wonder everyone is leaving xxx

Medical director at a healthcare advertising agency.