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the shizzle => shootin' the shit => Topic started by: Scouse D on November 26, 2020, 08:37:57 pm
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Hi UKB hive mind.
My wife is burnt out. Shes been GP for 15years and she wants out. She is an exceptional human and a wonderful GP but the job makes her sad and I want her to stop doing it and start living again. So here are my questions:
Does anyone have any experience of moving out of medicine?
Does anyone want to employ a medical expert with wonderful problem solving and team working skills with an incredibly agile mind? (Worth a try)
Does anyone work in other roles maybe within the nhs where you think the skills of a gp would be an asset?(she likes the idea of speech and language stuff/audiology/other specialism- shes not averse to the idea of training)
We are a bit stuck here as I know there must be employers out there that would snap her up but dont know how to go about finding out.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
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7-8 years ago MrsTT quit as a probation officer. She’d been one for 17-18 years... 60 hour weeks - taking on too much lots of grief responsibility and having to deal with some pretty nasty and manipulative clients. (For less than 30k a year..).
She went and did a part time MSc in counselling and now works as an NHS counsellor. Which is far far less stress and she gets a lot out of her job.
On reflection it took c.5 years for her to get over leaving and moving to a new career - almost like a PTSD response...
But worth it. That’s kind of what I’m getting at...
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Thanks tomtom, that's good to hear. I get the PTSD reference, she has been institutionalised and cant really see a life outside medicine.
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Does she have any interest in teaching medicine? Or is that too similar? Quite often university roles for teaching come up, which would use a lot of her knowledge but in a totally different context. But maybe she wants totally out of medicine.
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She doesn't rule it out but not overly keen
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My mates wife was a GP and ended up as the senior partner at the practice. She found it too stressful tried a few other things before ending up being GP at the University medical centre. Although meant she was still practicing medicine it didn’t have all the other stuff that goes with a normal GP practice.
Having spent 30 years working in the NHS as a mental health nurse, I think you hit a point where you feel the need to get out before you explode. However it’s a case of can you afford to do so, what else could you do and how long is it till I can get my pension.
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Cheers webbo, shes currently a salaried gp rather than a partner and really just wants out of general practice
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Has she looked into healthcare consultancies? I know my firm has hired medical doctors in the past as domain experts in the field though operating in a management consulting capacity working with hospitals and trusts etc. PM me if interested and I can share a bit more
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Is her practice good or shit?
A friend was a partner in a shit practice, making fuck all and watching the business go down the toilet. Obviously got stressed to hell, took time out and now locums. No real stress, rediscovered the joy of doing actual medicine and earns more for less work.
Obviously don’t know the finer details of your situation but just making the “shift of perspective can help” point.
Sorry if this is not helpful, I have read your just wants to get out message loud and clear. I’ll shut up now...
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Is there an area of practice she likes Psychiatry, Child care or the like and look to move into one of those areas as staff grade doctor. It might mean a drop in pay but a lot less stress.
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Thank you so much for all of this. Nik, dont apologise, I personally think this is an option but currently she is adamant she wants out. She says her practice is ok but it clearly isnt, she is just a loyal person who is also of the mindset that "every gp surgery " is the same whicbnis clearly not the case. (As a teacher, the school you teach in and the people you work with are what is important, I'm certain this is the case in gp too).
Webbo, there are certainly areas that she prefers, the thing that gets to her is the relentless stream of patients with whom she has 10minutes to make pretty full on decisions so never feels satisfied with the job she does. She comes home so burdened and wracked with guilt for no discernible reason.
Coops, this sort of role sounds interesting and the sort of thing that she wont have considered before. I'll drop you a pm.
Thanks again everyone
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the thing that gets to her is the relentless stream of patients with whom she has 10minutes to make pretty full on decisions so never feels satisfied with the job she does.
Not that I know anything about this, but my friend works as a dentist (albeit in the army) and loves the fact money and time basically isn’t an issue. She will have to leave at some point and would like to go into an NHS practice, but hates the idea of what you’ve described above.
Private sounds a lot better working wise, relative to her army role - could this be an option? Though I’m guessing that it’s already been considered.
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All roads lead to rope access Scouse :P
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Does anyone work in other roles maybe within the nhs where you think the skills of a gp would be an asset?(she likes the idea of speech and language stuff/audiology/other specialism- shes not averse to the idea of training)
My sister is a speech therapist in the NHS. She started with an unrelated language degree and after a few years the NHS put her through university to qualify fully for the role, and she loves it.
If you like i can put her in touch with your wife so they can have a chat
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Not specific to your situation Scouse, but both my brother and his wife voluntarily completely changed their careers in their mid-50s - both were also in careers somewhat akin to medicine in that they are often seen as vocations. It can be done.
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Scouse, sent you a pm.
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From my personal experience, she and you could try to isolate the pros and cons of her current job, and assess things before embarking in a decision whatsoever.
I am positive though that she should keep her skills and knowledge useful for the community.
I hate it when I read about people saying "I was a skilled surgeon but I burnt out and now I live in Cancun and sell ice creams and I'm much happier." That's a sort of personal win with a big community loss in my opinion.
Pretty sure that your wife doesn't fall in this goup.
I hope this helps and I wish you two all the best.
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Hi D,
Sad story and I suspect she’s not alone. My consultancy firm does a bunch of work in the Healthcare and Medical areas. The likes of Smith + Nephew and their competitors employ GPs in several capacities. I’m sure there are specialist recruitment consultancies who deal with GPS and other professionals transitioning into private sector work.
I’ll speak to my colleague and see what he has to say.
B
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Hi. As someone who works closely with both the audiologists and the speech and language therapists, I suspect that she may find it hard to adapt to moving to the role of an allied healthcare professional outside of medicine. Doctors get used to having quite a high amount of autonomy over what they do with their patients, and adapting to another way of working within healthcare may be a struggle.
If she doesn't mind the idea of retraining and staying in medicine outside of primary care however, there are a number of lesser known medical specialities that she could consider entering into, audiovestibular medicine being one of these, having a short(ish) training track and without a specific need to go back to doing a hospital job with antisocial hours as part of training. There are also training pathways in public health/clinical trials/occupational medicine that might allow her to escape the day to day of primary care, and with potential to move into the private sector. The only issue is the possibility of having to relocate to fulfil any additional training needs - the posts are not always evenly distributed geographically.
Hope this helps!
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Sam, FD and Nibile, thank you so much for your input it is all brilliant and very gratefully received.
Sam, do you know of any such specialisms that are based in Sheffield/ne Derbyshire?
FD that would be great if you could ask- thanks so much
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I guess I had to pop up at some point.
Firstly, there is plenty of support out there that she may wish to engage with to get an independent person's view.
- Practitioner Health, formerly GP Health Scheme (https://www.practitionerhealth.nhs.uk/)
- Whichever Local Medical Committee you fall under should have a support scheme/ mentorship scheme
- The BMA has options for support too
Having a degree in medicine and clinical experience opens a lot of doors. there are a few things to consider, however.
As a GP, she will be on the Performers List. Some other roles may still require a GMC license to practice +/- Performers List. There are requirements around Revalidation and The National Health Service (Performers Lists) (England) Regulations 2013 (as amended). (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/335/pdfs/uksi_20130335_en.pdf) This may mean she need to do an amount of clinical work to maintain registration, and she will need to consider this when deciding where to go. It's easier to maintain your registration than give it up and go back through the application process or Induction and returner Scheme.
Other roles could be open to someone with a medical qualification, but mostly in the private sector/ pharma etc
The other alternative is to go and do something completely different that she'd enjoy. Obviously there are financial considerations, but quality of life is more important than money in many respects.
It's pretty crap out there at the minute, so everyone needs to be aware of their own health and wellbeing. It's often like a treadmill and you can't see the situation you are in until you tep odd teh moving belt.
[Edit] May be worth looking at getting a good LinkedIn profile going too as you often get headhunters contacting you.
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I’m surprised no one has suggested pharmaceutical work. There’s lots of options in the industry where her background will be an asset. Best of luck
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Other roles could be open to someone with a medical qualification, but mostly in the private sector/ pharma etc
I did but my spelling was so shocking you probably missed it :-[
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So is my attention to detail. More so the reason I missed it.
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Father-in-law did that around 35 years ago.
He joined the Navy as a Surgeon officer to escape NHS GP practice, which he found far more varied and much lower pressure.
His wife, much the same.
There are a huge variety of medical roles within the services and MOD, both in practice and teaching/training. Civilian and service roles.
F-I-L volunteered for several disaster relief efforts over the years, which he seemed to “enjoy” if that’s the right term.
When he decided to semi-retire at 60, he was working for the “radio medical advice” service. When ships/personnel at sea get into medical difficulties, the ships medical officer (just one of the officers, usually the Chief Mate) is linked up with a shore side doctor. I sat with him while he was talking through a Paramedic dropped from one of her Majesty’s war canoes on to a cargo ship after a collision, trying to manage multiple casualties.
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Interventional cardiology?
in seriousness something like public health might be interesting? I considered this when there were no cardiology numbers. Law conversion degree and med neg?
I'll try and think of other things.
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My advice, if you haven't yet then to both start reading up on different perspectives on how much money you need to be financially independent and to finish work early. It may change what you both consider 'worth' doing.
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My advice, if you haven't yet then to both start reading up on different perspectives on how much money you need to be financially independent and to finish work early. It may change what you both consider 'worth' doing.
Any links/recommendations on this front? Having had a real job for nearly 4 years now I feel about ready to retire ;)
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I don't have any links but a couple of years ago my wife and I got a joint account with a view to seeing how much money we needed to survive. The idea was that all household bills ex-mortgage (which we'd need to payoff before retirement) would come from this and and once income from sources outside of wages (pension, savings or whatever your particular side hustle is) matched this then that's the time to retire. Problem was we've not had the discipline to stick to this and also my wife's predilection for buying tat like cushions, baskets, multiple cleaning products for doing essentially the same thing etc.
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My advice, if you haven't yet then to both start reading up on different perspectives on how much money you need to be financially independent and to finish work early. It may change what you both consider 'worth' doing.
Any links/recommendations on this front? Having had a real job for nearly 4 years now I feel about ready to retire ;)
Yes. I've been reading loads around this recently for good reasons.
Typically the yanks have turned it into a 'thing'. ::) FIRE (financial independence retire early).
Various bloggers and youtubers of course, many of them typically annoying but the underlying theories can be useful and possibly enlightening.
I hesitate to provide links... many of these types come across a bit cultish. Look up 'MMM retire early'. The maths of it is interesting.
edit: this probably merits its own thread.
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My advice, if you haven't yet then to both start reading up on different perspectives on how much money you need to be financially independent and to finish work early. It may change what you both consider 'worth' doing.
An alternative - or half way house is to work part time. Both me and MrsTT work 50% Half the salary obvs - and you have to keep an eye on the pension....
Who knows but it’s helped my well-being immensely over the last 5 years...
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Yes. I've been reading loads around this recently for good reasons.
Typically the yanks have turned it into a 'thing'. ::) FIRE (financial independence retire early).
I’ve seen these. Isn’t the gist of it basically to earn as much as you possibly can (from various income streams), crucially as early as you can, and literally not to spend anything beyond what you need to survive and put all spare cash into pensions and other investments?
Doesn’t strike me as rocket science.
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I’ve seen these. Isn’t the gist of it basically to earn as much as you possibly can (from various income streams), crucially as early as you can, and literally not to spend anything beyond what you need to survive and put all spare cash into pensions and other investments?
Doesn’t strike me as rocket science.
Oh. That's kind of a crappy option, sacrificing your youth for a promised future always seemed too high risk to be worth it to me, what if you get hit by a bus (or chronically injured etc.). There's a reason I didn't go into the city and get paid lots for selling my soul/life :lol: 0.5FTE sounds much more appealing!
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Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but in there is a huge amount of work linking environment sector and health. I.e Green prescribing etc.
Would be great having more people working in the environment sector with a health background!!
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I’ve seen these. Isn’t the gist of it basically to earn as much as you possibly can (from various income streams), crucially as early as you can, and literally not to spend anything beyond what you need to survive and put all spare cash into pensions and other investments?
Doesn’t strike me as rocket science.
Oh. That's kind of a crappy option, sacrificing your youth for a promised future always seemed too high risk to be worth it to me, what if you get hit by a bus (or chronically injured etc.). There's a reason I didn't go into the city and get paid lots for selling my soul/life :lol: 0.5FTE sounds much more appealing!
It needs it's own discussion. (although it's implicitly related to the original question posted).
I don't think there's any one-size fits all. Everyone's emotional and mental health in response to work, purpose in life and money, is different. But I do think there is a tendency among people in the UK (and certainly in the US) to be quite fearful of the cost of living and how much they need in the future to be happy. Bred into us by 'the system'.. consumption of goods/lifestyles = status, = happiness.
Etc. etc.
Fear seems to lie at the heart of it. Anything fearful needs examining, to see if it's a rational fear.
There are certainly some perspectives from the 'FIRE' brigade that have a good deal of truthiness about them..
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I’ve seen these. Isn’t the gist of it basically to earn as much as you possibly can (from various income streams), crucially as early as you can, and literally not to spend anything beyond what you need to survive and put all spare cash into pensions and other investments?
Doesn’t strike me as rocket science.
That's part of it. The other angle to these "I paid off my mortgage by 24" success stories seems to be to be gifted a huge sum of money by wealthy parents or set up a high risk business safe in the knowledge that it it goes toes up you have the security of your parents to fall back on.
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I’ve seen these. Isn’t the gist of it basically to earn as much as you possibly can (from various income streams), crucially as early as you can, and literally not to spend anything beyond what you need to survive and put all spare cash into pensions and other investments?
Doesn’t strike me as rocket science.
That's part of it. The other angle to these "I paid off my mortgage by 24" success stories seems to be to be gifted a huge sum of money by wealthy parents or set up a high risk business safe in the knowledge that it it goes toes up you have the security of your parents to fall back on.
I have no mortgage, two houses and poor parents (financially, otherwise exceptionally supportive (in that very Italian way in my mother’s case). I’m semi-retired. Originally to run my dream climbing gym etc etc.
However, incredibly bored and really quite fed up with living on a rigid, if adequate, income.
Hence my own drive back into some sort of career.
Be advised, that is not an easy transition after eight years in the wilderness.
Be sure you are comfortable “retired” before you settle into it.
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I don't think there's any one-size fits all. Everyone's emotional and mental health in response to work, purpose in life and money, is different.
There are certainly some perspectives from the 'FIRE' brigade that have a good deal of truthiness about them..
This is just the same old internal discussions that everyone has isn't it? (i.e. work-life balance). And most people sit somewhere on the spectrum. The FIRE brigade have just turned it into a 'thing' by advocating taking it to its most extreme, in the same way as people make a thing on the internet about extreme diets, or 'minimalism', or disappearing off into the wilderness to live with the flowers or whatever.
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I don't think there's any one-size fits all. Everyone's emotional and mental health in response to work, purpose in life and money, is different.
There are certainly some perspectives from the 'FIRE' brigade that have a good deal of truthiness about them..
This is just the same old internal discussions that everyone has isn't it? (i.e. work-life balance). And most people sit somewhere on the spectrum. The FIRE brigade have just turned it into a 'thing' by advocating taking it to its most extreme, in the same way as people make a thing on the internet about extreme diets, or 'minimalism', or disappearing off into the wilderness to live with the flowers or whatever.
Always wary of people who make money out of telling me how easy it is to make money...
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No no you're getting it all wrong.. since the advent of the internet, whatever choices you make in life mark you for categorisation so that you can be part of a group who's members can identify with one another and chat back n forth about it on web forums such as.. umm.. this one.
If you're frugal with money and drop out of work, you're part of the FIRE group. Identifying and naming these patterns of behaviour or thinking is seemingly an important part of the human experience.
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No no you're getting it all wrong..
If you're frugal with money and drop out of work, you're part of the FIRE group.
No I get it. These people are making extreme life choices in order to retire early and have decided to label themselves and advocate their methods. I just don't see their methods as being anything other than an extreme version of what most people do (or would want to do given the opportunity). Whether that's working in the city and retiring at 40, working two jobs to increase your income, living a very frugal lifestyle so you can work part-time etc or just muddling along somewhere in the middle. They're all decisions we make (or would like the option to make - note most of these FIRE types are well-educated graduates who have the ability to be high earners in their 20s and 30s and the opportunity to get on the housing ladder. Try selling this dream to someone working two jobs on minimum wage, living frugally, and still stuck renting and working in their 70s).
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Interventional cardiology?
in seriousness something like public health might be interesting? I considered this when there were no cardiology numbers. Law conversion degree and med neg?
I'll try and think of other things.
Cheers mate, will suggest
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I know a consultant anaesthetist coming up to retirement who didn't fancy just stopping and so trained as a counsellor. She wasn't hating anaesthesia, just wanted a change. Believe she did her training in her last few years, and then just kept it going part time when she retired as a consultant. Really enjoys it. Have another relative who was something high up in civil service or something like that who did pretty much the same thing. Certainly an area where as a GP she'll have the transferable skills.
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No no you're getting it all wrong.. since the advent of the internet, whatever choices you make in life mark you for categorisation so that you can be part of a group who's members can identify with one another and chat back n forth about it on web forums such as.. umm.. this one.
If you're frugal with money and drop out of work, you're part of the FIRE group. Identifying and naming these patterns of behaviour or thinking is seemingly an important part of the human experience.
Ah, I see.
I’m definitely not in the FIRE subset.
More the Frankly Unhinged Barely Afloat Retiree, or FUBAR...
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The whole FIRE analogy is loosely based round the 4% rule (or 3% or 5%) whereby if you have x amount that you need per year to live off, you'd need 25x invested to never run out of money..
There does exist lean-FIRE (where you just have enough to make ends meet and can only sit around in the house all day) or fat-FIRE where you have enough passive income to travel and enjoy your life etc.
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I sometimes think that discussions of schemes such as FIRE by non-Americans gloss over the incredibly skewed distribution of income - and more importantly wealth - in the US today (as per Teaboy's post above). Even the "good old days" of the American middle class were, by our somewhat European standards, incredibly unequal. Roll forwards after half a century of gobsmacking reductions in wealth tax, and clearly the top tier of Americans have so much cash knocking about they can seed their offspring's ambitions fairly easily. I'm not quite so sure the same conditions exist in the UK for as many people, 0.1% of 330m is still quite a big number and perhaps quite a few people in the tier below who see how it can be done, even as they struggle to make it a reality.
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Not sure I follow what you're trying to say there other than there's massive wealth inequality in the US and the UK.
By 'even in the tier below (0.1%) who can see how it's done but struggle to make it reality' .. are you saying that you think financial independence isn't realistic *even* for those annual earners in the top 1% or top 10%?
Mods, any chance this could be split off into a separate thread ('Financial Independence', or something)
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Not sure I follow what you're trying to say there other than there's massive wealth inequality in the US and the UK.
Sorry if I wasn't clear - what I'm saying is that wealth inequality in the US is off the scale as compared to here, and has been for a long time. Clearly this means there is a segment of the population who are exempt from one or all of the typical American cripplers of college debt, health insurance tied to a decent job, good jobs being in very high rent cities. Without these I suspect it's much, much easier to become financially independent, aka dependent on a steady stream of investment returns.
By 'even in the tier below (0.1%) who can see how it's done but struggle to make it reality' .. are you saying that you think financial independence isn't realistic *even* for those annual earners in the top 1% or top 10%?
Total guess work there on my part, though US wealth is *very* concentrated at the upper end of the distribution: of the top 10%, over half the wealth is held by the top 1% (going off 2010 figures as they're what I have to hand). I think it's the initial conditions (university debt and housing debt) that are the kicker, and that as time goes on an wealth concentration increases, there will be an increasing number of people with enough assets to give their kids that kind of start. All pure conjecture here and I'd happily be proved wrong.
Whether this is desirable, over and above Nibile's point above about surgeons-turned-ice cream vendors, I tend to see this as the creation of another generation of Mr Darcys, Mr Bingleys and Mr Bennets, with more than a dash of Melmottes making it all possible.
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The whole FIRE analogy is loosely based round the 4% rule (or 3% or 5%) whereby if you have x amount that you need per year to live off, you'd need 25x invested to never run out of money..
There does exist lean-FIRE (where you just have enough to make ends meet and can only sit around in the house all day) or fat-FIRE where you have enough passive income to travel and enjoy your life etc.
Yeah, ultimately it feeds off whatever rate of dividends or other income you think you can earn such that you never have to touch the principal (or at least not for a really long time).
The challenge is a market crash - your asset values will probably fall and your income streams reduce at the same time - but if you don't trim your expenditure to match the income you're then selling the principal at the bottom of the market. I think this was something that bit a number of retirees drawing down their pensions in the last crash - the markets recovered, but by that point people had sold quite a lot of the pot to maintain their income so had less left to benefit from the recovery with.
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I sometimes think that discussions of schemes such as FIRE by non-Americans gloss over the incredibly skewed distribution of income - and more importantly wealth - in the US today (as per Teaboy's post above). Even the "good old days" of the American middle class were, by our somewhat European standards, incredibly unequal. Roll forwards after half a century of gobsmacking reductions in wealth tax, and clearly the top tier of Americans have so much cash knocking about they can seed their offspring's ambitions fairly easily. I'm not quite so sure the same conditions exist in the UK for as many people, 0.1% of 330m is still quite a big number and perhaps quite a few people in the tier below who see how it can be done, even as they struggle to make it a reality.
I don't think this is the case at all. FIRE type concepts are being used and educating many non-wealthy young people who don't have safety nets. Both of my sons included. They're less concerned with the RE, and more with the FI.
Unlike Europe, most Americans have no faith in our government to provide a safety net(for good reason), and as such most americans have no safety net of ANY kind. There are few employee protections, low minimum wage, no government healthcare, and unemployment income is very limited. They see this and it freaks them out, so they look for ways to diversify income and create their own safety net. Given the general state of US politics and the resistance of 50% of the population to any kind of governmental interference, I think it's a smart call. The next best option would be to get an education that is in demand(nursing for example) and immigrate to canada, UK, Aus, or New Zealand and attempt to get citizenship there. But that's really hard to do.
So how do they do that? Step one is actually getting educated on how income works, how investments work, how the US tax codes work, and how to maximize your personal income and minimize your expense. Most 20 somethings I know are ignorant of most of this. So if FIRE type ideas are educating them, then I say great. (as long as they're not paying into a ponzi for it).
The issue for most people(i would guess both americans and europeans) is that we have a tendency to spend what is made. FIRe helps many people with this as it focuses on controlling spend to increase income. I think that is a good thing and 90% of people would probably benefit from this... you don't have to go the fringe for this basic concept to be a good idea.
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The issue for most people(i would guess both americans and europeans) is that we have a tendency to spend what is made. FIRe helps many people with this as it focuses on controlling spend to increase income. I think that is a good thing and 90% of people would probably benefit from this... you don't have to go the fringe for this basic concept to be a good idea.
But isn’t what you talk about more a case of re-learning something that’s been lost in the last 60-70yrs with the rise of consumerism, rather than the principles of FIRE (which is more about escaping work as early as you possibly can)?
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The issue for most people(i would guess both americans and europeans) is that we have a tendency to spend what is made. FIRe helps many people with this as it focuses on controlling spend to increase income. I think that is a good thing and 90% of people would probably benefit from this... you don't have to go the fringe for this basic concept to be a good idea.
But isn’t what you talk about more a case of re-learning something that’s been lost in the last 60-70yrs with the rise of consumerism
Most people consumed much less in the past, even the quite recent past, not because they were more thrifty or disciplined but because their economic circumstances left them almost zero opportunities to consume much beyond basic necessities (and often barely enough of those).
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Most people consumed much less in the past, even the quite recent past, not because they were more thrifty or disciplined but because their economic circumstances left them almost zero opportunities to consume much beyond basic necessities (and often barely enough of those).
I can only go off personal experience of my family and their friends of that generation and that doesn’t hold true for any of them. You may be right of course, but it seems to be much more of a cultural and generational thing to me.
My parents and grandparents lived through rationing and it seems to have had a profound effect on them. It’s taken my parents a very long time to be able to spend any money on themselves despite having plenty. The same was true of my grandparents. Good news for my inheritance of course, but I wish they could get out of the mindset of saving instead of spending a bit more.
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The expectation of my parents (and most of their friends) seems to have been to work at menial jobs you dislike for 50 years until you can draw your pension in your mid 60s. As much spare cash was spent on weekends at the pub, on hobbies, and holidays as was required to take the edge off the grind of the working week - if a lot of spending was required for psychic self-defence, so be it.
My parents don't quite get the notion that people expect to enjoy or take satisfaction from their jobs. On the other hand, they have a very good sense of work / life delineation, and think it is ludicrous that an employer might expect anything beyond basic competency during their shift, say, caring about the company good or taking work home (very much an "I will perform this task for these hours, don't expect anything at all outside that").
Not sure about people consuming much less in the past - I think food, clothes, and electronics now cost far less, weighted for wages and inflation, than when I was young. People of my parents' generation would have to spend around a weeks wages on a VHS video recorder or BBC Micro / C64 / Spectrum computer (and that is without being a particularly early adopter). Maybe there is an attitude these days to spend more on completely disposable items (fast fashion etc) but I think previous generations had to spend more on more basic stuff. The big unavoidable problem for the young now is housing / rent costs... which is admittedly a pretty major problem (paying off my mortgage was a definite moment of "finally, I have fuck you money"!)
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That’s tough for you both. It’s grim being in a job you’ve trained for and done for decades, was a real vocation, but now feels untenable.
Twenty years ago I’d have suggested teaching but not now unless she is completely passionate about this. Academia in the UK has become a business and this doesn’t suit everyone. I’ve done a bit of consultation for drugs companies which was lucrative but unsatisfactory (I didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear and wasn’t invited back!) and charities which was satisfying but didn’t pay.
A friend of mine moved into Public Health after developing a medical condition that meant he couldn’t continue as a GP. He really enjoyed it. I would too but I’ve always been interested in the societal dimension of health and illness. You don’t get the direct patient contact which it sounds like she really likes.
I can think of one medic who retrained to become a physio. (but a lot more who went in the opposite direction). She was excellent at it and appreciated the slower pace, less pressured workplace, and greater time with patients. Similar applies to other allied health professions I’d imagine.
One of the challenges of being a GP is you are acting as a de facto counsellor or psychotherapist much of the time, with the attendant pressures these roles bring, but without the support mechanisms built-in when that’s the title on your door. If she likes that facet of her current work then doing it more formally might be a more sustainable path.
Can she take some time out, without cutting all her ties, to consider her options, talk to people doing the jobs she’s considering (this is really important), and give you both a break? It’s hard to make a decision, let alone a good one, when it feels like you’re in the middle of the rip and it’s fast carrying you out to sea.
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This last paragraph from Duncan is very true.
Scouse - I’ve still not spoken to my colleague but will do so this week.
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Thanks Duncan and FD.
The current plan is that she takes time out like you suggested for 6 months to a year (we can just about manage that) to assess her options and get off the treadmill. Might give her a chance to remember what it's like to be carefree and decide what sort of things really interest her.
She is already part time, but it's not the sort of job you can just leave at work and it is on her mind every hour of the day.
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Glad you've got a plan.
It's probably worth looking into/ getting advice on the NHS Pension as well, as it can have some effects if you don't continue to contribute. Some BMA guidance (https://www.bma.org.uk/pay-and-contracts/pensions/a-change-to-your-circumstances/authorised-absences-and-your-pension) here.
As far as Performers List etc goes, the Regs won't kick in unless you don't undertake any GP work for 12 months.
Good luck.
[EDIT: Bad spellign again!]
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All I'm saying is, it's 4 days training and an assessment day she'll cruise it no doubt.
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All I'm saying is, it's 4 days training and an assessment day she'll cruise it no doubt.
Empty words Dixon. You promised me a job share on a rotation 10 years ago, and I’ve not seen shift one from you.
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All I'm saying is, it's 4 days training and an assessment day she'll cruise it no doubt.
I have suggested it - I'm sure she will come round to the idea soon!
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All roads lead to rope access Scouse :P
I've got a fake level 3 certificate that Mrs Scouse D can have. We just need to alter the name.
What could possibly go wrong?
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You don't get the T-shirt for starters.