At work blog

News, views and analysis

Syndication

Blog Entries

Tagcloud

accident and emergency alcohol appraisal binge drinking blood taking bma regional services bma regional services in england car parking care quality commission career breaks careers changing contracts child healthcare clinical directors communication community care community psychiatry competency-based assessments conscientious objection consultant contract consultants continuing professional development contracts defence disability disabled people's health discrimination doctors for doctors doctors health doctors’ health dress codes elderly care emergency care emergency department emergency medicine equal opportunities european working time directive expenses and allowances extra sessions foundation doctors general practice general practitioners general psychiatry geriatric medicine gps health inequalities healthcare associated infections healthcare rationing home visits hospitals hours of work international committee international conference on physician health junior doctors juniors learning difficulties licensing laws locums management maternity leave maternity services medical academics medical accidents medical education and training medical reports medical students mental health minimum pricing modernising medical careers negotiation nhs nhs information technology nhs reform obs and gynae occupational health old age older people older people and health on-call work paediatrics and child health patient complaints pay pensions performance practice premises prescribing primary care programmed activities psychiatry public health medicine and community health doctors redundancy revalidation salaried gps sas doctors self-management seniority sessional gps sick doctors sickness certification spas specialist training standards of care supporting professional activities surgery t&cs westminster parliament whistleblowing women's health work patterns working abroad working conditions working environment work-life balance work-related stress

Featured entry

Reasonable adjustments

What does it take to work as a doctor? For once, this is not a question about qualities. Instead, it is what doctors with disabilities and their employers have to work out, to enable them to carry out their jobs.

Read article View comments

Latest posts

She fell out of bed and woke up to NHS bureaucracy

Posted on 30 May 2013 by a specialty trainee
It is 3am by the time I get to see you and you have spent almost four hours in the corridor, watching a chaotic world go by.
Tags: junior doctors, emergency care, elderly care
Read more... Comments (11)
Finding the time for competency assessments

Posted on 10 May 2013 by Anna Khoo

My boss looks tired. He’s had a cough for the past week and his temper is short. I don’t like to bother him but I shelve my scruples and ask: ‘Would it be all right if we did some assessments?’ I feel guilty as he sighs: ‘Do you mind if we do them next week?’

Tags: competency-based assessments, junior doctors
Read more... Comments (0)
Why being a GP needs more than 'soft' skills

Posted on 21 February 2013 by Rachel Brettell

I, like most junior doctors, enjoy teaching. Yes, it can be hard to fit around busy ward jobs but there are always students eager to learn and rewarding to teach.

Tags: medical education and training, junior doctors, medical students, general practice
Read more... Comments (5)
Cake makes for good company

Posted on 4 January 2013 by Zara Jones

I call his mobile, but there is no reply. I try the landline. Someone answers, but they hang up before I can speak to my fiancé. He is at a party with everyone from my secondary school.

Tags: work-life balance, work patterns, junior doctors
Read more... Comments (3)
Seeing the season's hidden sadness

Posted on 27 December 2012 by Rory Conn

Being perhaps the only NHS junior doctor qualified for four-and-a-bit years lucky enough never to have worked a bank holiday, I couldn’t grumble much about being asked to work this Christmas night. My only complaints were that I was needed unexpectedly, to cover a sick colleague, and had to travel 60 miles from my family home, leaving behind a seven-week-old baby.

Tags: junior doctors, communication, psychiatry
Read more... Comments (3)
Stethoscopes missing from public health toolkit

Posted on 20 December 2012 by Susanna Mills

The transition from clinical medicine to public health was accompanied by a distinct shift in scale, pace and method of approach. But the dramatic adaptation required to interpret the different jargon found me completely unprepared.

Tags: public health medicine and community health doctors, junior doctors, communication
Read more... Comments (2)
Great expectations

Posted on 19 December 2012 by Anne-Marie Curtis

I am disappointed to see that I am merely as expected.

Tags: performance, appraisal, junior doctors
Read more... Comments (0)
Time to care

Posted on 26 November 2012 by Alexander Gates

I recently had one of those rare but very welcome letters of praise from a patient. It meant a lot, as you can sometimes feel isolated being a junior doctor in a primary care setting

Tags: extra sessions, junior doctors, general practice
Read more... Comments (0)
How ill do you have to be?

Posted on 12 November 2012 by Zara Ford

As I entered the house, I was hit by a terrible smell. I ran to the bathroom and vomited. It was norovirus season

Tags: junior doctors, doctors for doctors
Read more... Comments (0)
Mind your Ps and Qs

Posted on 8 November 2012 by David Bryson

I have a two-year-old daughter who is just starting to speak. Her cooing and gaggling is progressively being replaced by discernable words — the standard ‘mamma’ and ‘dadda’, but also such enunciations as ‘pease’ and ‘dank ou’.

This has happened without any real effort or prompting. So if my daughter can use such words appropriately, why can’t medical professionals?

Tags: junior doctors, emergency department
Read more... Comments (0)