1st Year GEM Student having doubts about medicine.

blaithin123 wrote: »

I'm in first year of GEM at the minute. I've been having a lot of doubts about if this is what I want to do. Mainly because the more research I'm doing on working as a doctor the more worried I am of becoming a doctor. Any interns/SHOs that would be able to answer these questions I would greatly appreciate!

I'm a registrar and it's been a long time since I was an SHO but I might be able to offer some advice.
To begin with, medicine is very broad and there are lots of different avenues you can take. I've worked in hospital medicine, then community medicine, then back to hospital in a variety of capacities over my career.

blaithin123 wrote: »

1. What is your rota like? Do you have many on calls/nights etc. Does this depend on your job? I've heard it's worse in the regional hospitals with regards having to do 24 hour calls etc. (The reason I'm so concerned about hours is I have a chronic condition and I'm worried I wouldn't be able to cope with such long hours and a constantly changing schedule from days to nights if this is the case. I know this is a bit late to be thinking about this and I should have done my research before applying but it is what it is now.)

Rota is very variable depending on what branch of medicine you’re in and where you’re working. 24 hour call shifts do exist but they’re getting rarer. If you have personal health difficulties, you should discuss these with the occupational health department of where you’re working. Reasonable accommodations must be made so they may alter what shifts you work etc. I was injured a while back and had a phased return to work. There are many doctors with chronic conditions and they do ok. You may need to ultimately pick a specialty that won’t aggravate your condition.

blaithin123 wrote: »

2. How much responsibility do you have?

It is a very responsible job, it’s not possible to get away from that. But in your early years, you are supported by senior colleagues. As an intern, you phone your SHO. Then your registrar, and ultimately your consultant. Just make sure that you don’t do anything beyond what you’re trained and competent to do and you’ll be ok.

blaithin123 wrote: »

3. How much control do you have on where you work? I would ideally like to be near to Dublin if not in Dublin but I know you have to complete a lot of different rotations in different hospitals so I'm wondering how possible this is.

This can be difficult to advise on. If you’re not on a training scheme (like me at the moment), you apply to hospitals and work wherever there are openings. If you’re on a training scheme, they get you to rank areas/hospitals etc. and you move around based on those. Wanting to be in Dublin makes things easier as there are so many hospitals in the city and very close to it. Staying very close to Dublin is definitely possible for most, if not all, of your training. Staying exclusively in Offaly for example, wouldn’t be possible.

blaithin123 wrote: »

4. I feel as though I'm struggling a bit with course content and the volume I have to learn and I'm worried this is going to continue to get worse as time goes on. Do things get easier in the clinical years when everything is more applied?

This is normal. Things do get better. It’s a bit easier to put things in perspective and things get less abstract because you see examples all the time. There is a large volume of things to learn but it all builds on the foundation. The only “I really don’t get this” times I had with medical school were during the first two years.