A Doctor's life. Part 3: Tips for young doctors

OK, I know that after reading the last blog of this series, you’re probably hyperventilating and thinking “OMG, what the hell am I getting myself into?” Don’t panic! I realise the prospect of having to go through all these steps may be a little daunting, but if I were to summarise all the steps involved in the career progression of any other profession, these would appear equally nerve-wracking. Training as a doctor is a wonderful and rewarding journey and with a minimal amount of forward planning, the hurdles on the path can be negotiated with relative ease. Here are a few tips that will go a long way in getting you ahead of the pack!
 

Do research
If an opportunity arises for you to participate in research, whether it is during a hospital placement in med school, within a University program or during your own time as a volunteer, go for it! You may be tempted to spend that time on a trip to Bali but trust me, your name on a research publication can make a huge difference to your CV. I know Doctors with otherwise average resumes who managed to land competitive city-based positions because of publications they were lucky enough to participate in during med school. Look up the research projects your hospital or Uni are involved in and don’t hesitate to contact project leaders to volunteer your time.
 

Take training courses
Once you start working, be on the lookout for available training courses. Discuss with senior trainees which have been useful to them in their training and don’t hesitate to use your conference or vacation leave to attend them. These courses are often pricey, but well-worth the investment. 
 

Do an international placement
Instead of bumming around from backpacker to backpacker on your school breaks, enroll in a placement at an international hospital. It may be the opportunity for you to visit family abroad or do a bit of traveling and it will look great on your CV. Employers will also look favourably upon an experience of medicine in different settings.
 

Volunteer
Any volunteering within medical organisation will be favourably looked upon. Charities like St John Ambulances, provide great training opportunities for volunteer first aiders, and will let you attend many cool events for free.
 

Build a network
A key to success in training as a doctor is to obtain good references from your superiors. It is therefore important that you study who is who in the hospital and make an effort to make yourself known to them in a positive way. Depending on the hazards of rotation schedules, your window for making an impression on a boss may be short, so don’t waste time. For this reason, it usually pays to try and complete the totality of your training within one place. Aside from impressing your superiors, don’t forget to make friends amongst your peers, it might save your day when you need to swap a shift or need someone to cover for you.
 

Be nice to the nurses
Hospitals are highly hierarchical structures and even as a junior doctor, you may find yourself in the awkward position of having to give orders to nursing staff that is very senior to you. A piece of advice: always be very careful how you go about it. Human nature being what it is, egos can sometimes get in the way and resentment from the nursing staff can make the life of a junior doctor absolute hell. I’ve heard countless stories of junior doctors being unfairly reported to management by the nursing staff (for petty things like excessive use of mobile phones), just because of a prior incident where egos were bruised. Situations like this will cause you a lot of stress and unfortunately, you will quickly find out that you have little recourse. Nursing staff have a lot of power, especially in places like the emergency department: stay in their good graces. Make sure they know you respect and value their work and learn to be diplomatic in how you phrase any negative feedback.
 

Shut up and deal with it
In the apprenticeship-style training of a junior doctor, your teachers will be other doctors and although they might be brilliant at their jobs, they will have received virtually no training on how to teach others. In addition, they have to dispense that training in a chaotic and high-pressure environment. The unfortunate consequence is that they might be absolutely awful teachers. They might have little to no patience, they might shout at you, they might be unfair; they might even be bullies. One piece of advice: shut up and deal with it. Now is not the time to fight injustice. Unless the matter is very serious, if you were unfairly told off, just learn to keep quiet. Just work on doing your job well: that will speak for itself. Don’t let it eat at you and remember that you’re not alone: there isn’t a single doctor who doesn’t have a horror story about being unfairly singled out by a consultant. The take-home message is that it’s not the end of the world. Learning how to take criticism, no matter how harsh, with grace and dignity is an important skill you must learn to succeed as a doctor.
 

Go the extra mile
A major challenge of your position as a junior doctor is that your relatively low level of skills will guarantee that you are swarmed with low-complexity cases, while more experienced people handle complex cases. Unless you happen to work in a quiet service attended by senior doctors with a great love for teaching (and where baby unicorns play with rainbows on a bed of brownies), the hectic nature of the hospital environment may lead to you never having a chance to advance your training through exposure to more interesting cases. It will therefore be up to you to be proactive and go the extra mile (stay late, suck up to senior staff) in order to secure training opportunities.
 

Build a support system
It goes without saying, but in addition to the work you have to put in order to secure opportunities for practical training, you also need to find the time and energy to study for exams, which you will no doubt find a bit challenging after a week of 10h night shifts in ED or 12h in the birth units. Piece of advice: build yourself a solid support system: if you don’t have a partner or family member who seriously has your back (and you’re willing to owe them big time), put some of your hard-won money into having your meals delivered and your house-chores and laundry handled for you. If possible, also make sure you live very close to your workplace: you will have neither the time nor the energy to commute to work and shift hours can make it very awkward to use public transport. If you must drive to work, don’t hesitate to ask a friend to drop you off or pick you up if you are too tired; every year exhausted young doctors tragically die on the road after a nightshift. You’ve worked very hard to get here, don’t let it all go to waste.

For more information on your career-options, stay tuned for part 4 of our post graduation series “FAQs and Career options”.