Doctors, would you recommend beginning a career in medicine now?

[tropicalfish]

Hi,
There is alot of negative media attention on the life of junior doctors, junior doctor contracts etc. I dont know any doctors myself really and wondered is it all as bad as is made out in the media? I personally am completely against the new contract.

Would you recommend a career in medicine and if so where would you do it.
I would have thought being a GP might be a good option but I hear there are lots of vacancies so presume this is not considered to be a good choice.
Is working in London much worse than working elsewhere for instance?
My dc was thinking about doing medicine but is reconsidering because of the worries about doing medicine in that you can get sued, people could make a complaint about you, you have to study all through your career, pay alot of money to do exams and then not really get paid enough to afford to live easily particularly considering the many years of study and lifestyle sacrifices that have to be made.
TF

[gonetoseeamanaboutadog]

Bean counters?? I should say so, those are people's taxes you're talking about. And anyway, it's not a reflection on conditions necessarily. You can have reasonable conditions but just stay, or pay a penalty if you scarper. This is what annoys me about medics today. If a reasonable point is made they instantly turn all victimised and melodramatic. If they're talking about going where the best salaries are after an NHS training they're just being realistic. If we suggest they could then pay for the cost of a wasted training we are bean counters driving you all to insanity.

[easterlywinds]

Doctors cannot be made to stay and practise in this country because we often don't have the jobs for them. DH interviewed 5 juniors for a consultant post last week. All of them have completed their training. This is the only post in this speciality that is available at the moment in the UK.

[gonetoseeamanaboutadog]

Well, that's different then. But why are we being told that there aren't enough doctors to fill the available posts?

[Mrsmorton]

Just the same with dentists! There aren't enough jobs for all of them to complete just one year in the NHS let alone the number of years suggested by some.

There are big shortages in some medical specialties and in others it's not so bad.

[DeoGratias]

So people then need to choose their speciality carefully as do lawyers. We always get in law times when there are not enough doing Y but too many doing X.

[DeoGratias]

I agree about recruiting on resilience and indeed stocism. it's a key requirement for lawyers actually - those of us who carry on whatever and aren't ill and turn up tend to do well (as indeed do most doctors). It's one reason it can be best to recruit from the better private schools who seem to teach that kind of thing better than state schools.

[easterlywinds]

I think there is a need for more doctors in most specialities but there is a lack of funding for them.

[easterlywinds]

Also, it's not a case of choosing specialities more carefully. These candidates had a minimum of 15 years training. They were used by the NHS to help treat patients during this time, covering clinics, wards and operating theatres. They were past the stage of shadowing others and performing menial jobs. The options for the unsuccessful candidates are either to work as locum consultants (funding available for these as they are fixed term contracts) or job overseas. However if they spend too long as a locum consultant, then they end up with more competition as more 'juniors' finish their speciality training.

[gonetoseeamanaboutadog]

It's one reason it can be best to recruit from the better private schools who seem to teach that kind of thing better than state schools.



Only on mumsnet.

[Mrsmorton]

Yes, where I come from all the soft kids went to state schools. I used to find my lack of resilience really helped when I was getting bullied on the school bus. in fact the girl who got stabbed in home economics was a right fanny. She'd never have made it as a Dr
She was fine btw.

[Kr1stina]

Indeed mrs Merton . I'm surprised that somone so lacking in resilience and stoicism as you ever made it into dentistry