Any doctors out there? Career advice needed for terrified grad…

[Ilovechurrosalldaylong]

My DD has just completed her 5 year medicine degree and in a tearful phone conversation has disclosed to us that she is absolutely terrified of starting her F1 to the point where she is thinking about not starting.

The reasons are along the lines of that she might make a mistake etc. Of course we have tried reassuring her but she said that she only scraped some of her exams over the years and feels she won’t remember knowledge needed to be an F1 and that there have even been some F1s on her placements that have been declared not competent and are not allowed to make decisions and this is also terrifying her.

I’m assuming this is very common at this stage and I tried to reassure her but obviously nothing I say is going to help. She’s talking about getting a corporate job instead and I advised not to make any decisions until she has started and tried it for a while and then see if she is coping with it.

Any advice would be welcome!

I'm a Consultant in the NHS.

Congratulations to your daughter - what an achievement, and it's a big transition to working life. Despite all your see on Mumsnet, it is a stimulating and fulfilling career and every day at work I am struck by the enormous privilege we are given in being allowed to care for people when they most need us.

Speaking plainly, it might be useful to hear that all foundation doctors in the UK work under very very close supervision of a Consultant, and a senior medical team. It would be inappropriate that they are making significant decisions that would meaningfully change outcome without having robustly discussed them with a senior. There's a daily led Consultant ward round, and there are very clear pathways by which unwell or deteriorating patients trigger senior reviews. Any situation in which an FY doctor is left with a patient where they feel out of their depth is a failure of senior supervision and I'd say those are exceptionally rare. I would expect all but the most basic of decisions regarding patient care to be run by me.

The role of the FY is often to help enact plans (request imaging, complete bloods, write notes and discharges up) and to watch and learn from the senior clinicians they work alongside.

It is a big transition but it is incredibly well supported for most resident doctors.

As an ICU Consultant I feel seen 😂.

Totally agree, in my experience all FY1 placements in Critical Care are supernumerary (staffing in supplementary to minimum staffing requirements) and entirely focused on learning and development.

How is she doing now?