No 69: Career Advice from Older and Wiser GPs
If you have read one of these blogs before then you will know that I am not a huge fan of the UK post-graduate medical training system. One thing that I feel is lacking is a mentoring relationship.
All trainees have at least one clinical supervisor and an educational supervisor, however, whether these senior doctors take on the role of a mentor is very much a roll of the dice.
In my last few years, I have been really lucky to be mentored by a few good doctors but this has perhaps been more down to luck than design.
I have taken the opportunity this year to piggy back on my supervisor and try to make use of his contacts. Luckily for me, my current supervisor is a very well connected doctor and happy to act as a mentor.
A few months ago, I asked him “do you have any doctors that you look up to, or have learned from?” And he then listed a few colleagues and then he kindly asked them if they would take half an hour to speak to me.
I also reached out to my other supervisor and asked them directly for their career advice. And he was also very generous with his time and thoughts.
I am going to list the advice from these doctors below, because I want to have a summary and because I found it very reassuring and I hope others will too.
Firstly, I am just going to explain what prompted me to ask all of these doctors for their advice. I was feeling as if I was getting lost in a system, just plodding along and not really going anywhere. I wasn’t sure what my career goals were going to be. I don’t have one huge mission that drives me every day. And most days it feels like going to work to see patients, do the best we can with limited resources, come home and tick a load of portfolio boxes and then try to read something useful for a medical exam, then sleep and repeat. At the end of the next year or two, then go out into the big, wide world as a qualified GP and hope to find a good career.
As someone who planned to be a “successful doctor” from the age of 14, not having a 15 year plan feels very alien and unsettling.
So, the advice:
Become competent. The first part of your career is about becoming a good doctor. This takes time and practice, patience and learning. It will take at least 5 years before you have enough experience post-CCT to be truly confident in your decision making.
Become a master. Don’t just aim for competence, aim for mastery. If you focus on building experience and really working on your craft then these skills will not leave you. So, if you go on to do things away from clinical medicine then you won’t feel anxious about returning to being a frontline clinician. If you do not focus on being very competent to start with, then you may get skill fade and then anxiety.
Become of value. The value of a doctor in non-clinical roles, is that they are assumed to bring “clinical competence” to the team. If you are not clinically competent, then you will not be respected and your value to the team is less. You may also bring other skills, knowledge and character but they are not necessarily why you are useful to the team.
Ignore social media. IG and FB and Twitter are full of young successful doctors, who write world famous papers, campaign on important issues, have millions of followers and make money from selling apple products and skin care. However, not everyone can do this, not everyone wants to and not everyone needs to. See point 3, many of these junior doctors have found other careers outside the traditional medical training programme and this may work for them, or it may not.
Time! You have so much time! Even if you come to medicine late and then change speciality training and take time out. You will probably still have roughly 30 years as a fully qualified doctor. 30 years! Thats a huge amount of time to get good at your job, find something you like doing and then take on other career challenges.
Don’t worry about planning. A medical career is almost impossible to plan. So don’t worry about it. Pick a job that you will enjoy and looks fun and ticks most of your boxes. Then keep a look out for opportunities that sound even more fun or interesting. You will come across many career choices in your 40 year career. If you keep picking ones that you think will be fun and interesting, then you will probably end up spending your time doing something you enjoy. And if you make a wrong choice at one point, nevermind, you can usually just go find something else.
Choice. If you want to do something non-clinical then there are a huge range of choices. You almost have too much choice. So take your time. Look around and try things out in a small way. Try being a trainer, being a teacher, a re-validation mentor, working for the colleges, work for a medical school, do research, do QI, be a partner, be a manager, get involved in local politics or national politics or find a cause that you believe in and join the campaign group. And top tip, is that everyone should have one thing outside clinical medicine that excites then and gives them a break. No one (very few people) can be clinical full time.
Quick changes. Even if you stay clinical for the next 20 years, you still have time to go from an unknown doctor to a national leader within about 2 years. These career moves do not have to be done by the time you are 26! You can get a PhD in 3 years, train to be a manager in 1 year. Its never too late to try something new.
Work out your boundaries. If you think about what you want from life, then you can shape your career around these. If you don’t like travelling, then take on local jobs. If you don’t want to spend time away from your partner then either take them with you or find ways to always go home. If you dont like research, then avoid it. Likewise, if you want to avoid teaching and training then you don’t have to do it. But taking 5 minutes to work out your priorities could really help you build the work/life balance you want.
Turn your phone off. You dont have to be accessible 24/7. You do not have to anwser calls and emails, unless you are on call. Try your best to protect your “free time”. To avoid burn out you need to have boundaries. To have a long and happy career, you should try to avoid burn out.
I hope that is helpful?
There was plenty more smaller points and maybe I will come back to them but I think these were the major points that have stuck with me.