Day in the Life of a GP Trainee (Junior Doctor): The Honest Truth

Working as a junior doctor in the UK is a particularly challenging time and many undergraduates and prospective medical students are concerned.
What is life like in training? Does it get better? Do GP trainees have as good work-life balance as they're supposed to?
With this video I planned to answer those questions and help bridge the gap between doctors and the general public. I do that by showing a simple day in my life.
I chose this day specifically not because it is representative of every single day in GP, but because it shows that the life of a doctor close to the end of training is fun. It's satisfying. It's rewarding. It isn't all doom and gloom and trust me, there's light at the end of the tunnel.
I hope you have found this video useful. If you have then give it a thumbs up and let me know what you enjoyed or didn't enjoy so much so I can meet your needs.
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Dr S
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[@DrSermedMezher]

Check out me opening my last ever medical exam results here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGevZn-tnqmXiqM

[@pierzing.glint1sh76]

I'm sorry i have to say this I am an GP ST3 in England about to do my licensing exam (called SCA now) (same stage as the bloke in the video) I'm sure he's a lovely guy and has it all put together managing his property business on the side and making it work with his skin care routine and all the rest of it... But this is a highly idealized version of GP life. It is not like this at all. This video is akin to friends being an accurate depiction of a young 20 somethings life in new York city. Please dont mislead people especially medical students and f1 / f2 trainers who may be thinking of going into GP training.

[@DrSermedMezher]

Hello all, I was e-mailed a few questions by an aspiring medic so I thought I would share the Q&A here for your benefit: First e-mail: I recently watched your YT video on ' The Day in the Life of a GP Trainee' and as an aspiring medic who wants to specialise in General Practice, I would appreciate if you could answer some of my questions: 1. What are the average Gp working hours - I hear some say it may be 9 to 5 or maybe 8 am to 6pm? 2. What is the average salary of a locum vs a paid GP who works 5 days a week and 10 sessions - there seems to be a lot of variation on this? 3. Is it sustainable (in your opinion) to do 10 sessions a week or is that too stressful? 4. Other pathways to becoming a GP e.g. moving to another country and studying General Practice and then returning to the UK as a GP. My response: Thanks for getting in touch and great to hear that you’re interested in a medical career. It can be very rewarding from both a financial and fulfilment perspective. Make sure you’re getting into it for the right reasons like: - love of science - passion for helping others The wrong reasons to enter a medical career are: - money - status - respect - family pressures With that out of the way, the answers to your questions are: 1. What are the average Gp working hours - I hear some say it may be 9 to 5 or maybe 8 am to 6pm? 8am to 6pm is usual if working in an actual GP surgery. My day is 9-5 or 9-4pm as I am a registrar in training. That will change once I qualify, although, working in a GP surgery is just 1 of thousands of options as a GP. You can triage 111 calls, work from home, do online prescription processing (not see patients at all) or work in private healthcare doing medicals. Working patterns for each of these vary so there is always a way you can match a job with your requirements. That being said though, in the training point up to becoming a GP you don’t have anywhere near that level of control and are at the mercy of the training programs. That will last around 5 years, prepare yourself for that - it isn’t easy! 2. What is the average salary of a locum vs a paid GP who works 5 days a week and 10 sessions - there seems to be a lot of variation on this? Few GPs work 10 sessions a week while salaried but if you did, the salary would be around £100,000. As a locum in London in current climate that would probably be around £160,000 - that is a lot of work though and probably unsustainable long-term. It does also depend on market rates, the area you work in and social/unsocial hours. 3. Is it sustainable (in your opinion) to do 10 sessions a week or is that too stressful? Definitely unsustainable. 4. Other pathways to becoming a GP e.g. moving to another country and studying General Practice and then returning to the UK as a GP. Yep many people train abroad and get full training there but studying in their medical schools usually makes that process easier. USA/Canada/Australia are popular options for this. Most people I know though would probably train in the UK and then move abroad after qualifying as it’s significantly easier once you have your CCT (certificate of completion of training). Hope that helps!

[@davidm6329]

Hey Sermed, I'm a big fan of your videos! This one was interesting to watch particularly because it's great to watch people who have healthy routines. You use your time very efficiently. I hope to get to that point eventually as well.

[@mjradi4371]

Great video. All the best for balancing Dad Life and Doctor Life.

[@DrSermedMezher]

That’s very kind, thank you! Are you a med student/prospective applicant? I’m interested to know!

[@orthodoxblue7252]

The first part of training should be “how to work a full week” and treat your patients face to face.

[@mikesmith8313]

Yes, nice video, good healthy routine and evening meal 😅. One thing that caught my eye, made me think, coming from a similar background is that the long shot while your camera time lapses through the Patient medical records on your PC, should be blackened out(redacted) not sped up. Just think with today's technology, what someone could do with that info?

[@Nugget9908]

Keep up the awesome work! ♥️

[@DrSermedMezher]

That is very kind of you Caleb. Do you find these kind of videos useful? Or would you prefer me to focus on House videos alone

[@bronwenvearncombe3312]

Brilliant - really interesting. I’ve just become a first time granny to a baby girl so know that once she arrives it might just 8moact your sleep regime 😂. Congratulations🎉

[@LadyVader33]

Big congrats! ♡

[@DrSermedMezher]

Congratulations Bronwen! That’s great to hear. Haha yeah I don’t think a clean 7 hours from 10pm - 5am is going to be realistic anymore 🤣

[@yas4229]

Hi!! I started gpst1 in august.. but just started my gp ITP job! Can you give any tips for someone who is completely knew to gp, resources ect

[@yas4229]

Also anything on the Akt aswell

[@DrSermedMezher]

Hi Yas, welcome to GP training and the channel! Pleasure to have you here. There are a few resources you will find useful. The Bradford VTS website has a lot of useful tools for you to go through, especially related to consultation models and finding out your personality type. Clinical tools - make sure you know where to find your local formulary and imaging guidelines. AKT - I've made a video on it that I've shared with many of my fellow trainees here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHjNh4GHmsmbY7s Hope you find it useful :)

[@tanyamccann1747]

Thank you for mentioning the admin team. And lunch!

[@alo3787]

Very good video brother, im just wondering if thats always your work times? I saw on a website (made by our state) it said they start at 07:00, is that true or what can i expect?

[@laluna5548]

Where is the practical work? IVs? Injections? Skin suturing?Looking at Xrays? Is that not part of the job?

[@dr.abraham_mallela]

Can you explain how it different when you finish training? Time wise.

[@success607]

I'm fifth year medical student in Africa Could you make a vedios about internship /rotations and so on tnx

[@DrSermedMezher]

Do you mean foundation training like FY1/FY2? Did you find any value in this day in the life video?

[@success607]

@@DrSermedMezher Yup Very useful and entertaining 👌

[@sudipkarmaker4144]

Hello doctor your videos are great. I will join in the nhs as a trust grade doctor in the next month. In future i want to join gp training. Could u please share ur opinion how will i prepare myslelf for getting into the training programme. What should i study from the beginning?

[@DrSermedMezher]

Hi Sudip! Great to hear from you and glad to hear that you're enjoying the content. The GP training programme entrance exam will be your main hurdle. It's called the MSRA (Multi-Specialty Recruitment Assessment) and you need to score a good mark to get in, especially in competitive locations. The best way to understand the types of questions they will ask is using a question bank like Passmedicine. I used them and ended up scoring high enough to skip the interview process. The interview generally has clinical and ethical stations so make sure to be prepared for that too! Hope that helps and look forward to seeing you on the channel again

[@hunteraddy453]

Hi Doc really entertaining and informative video.

[@tanyamoledina4796]

Hi. How did you prepare for the MSRA?

[@iknowineedausername]

Hey have you got any tips for MSRA

[@rayblade6383]

I've always wanted to rent a camel lol thanks for that information 😋