#medspo

I think that to a degree, none of us know what we're getting into - completely - when we apply to university for a vocational degree. Even when we have done a LOT of research, had extensive work experience, talked to a lot of people etc. Some things have to be lived.

And honestly? Med school now is different to med school in my day (10 years ago!) and in my predecessors' day. Medicine has changed significantly too - today we're facing job pressures and employment issues that were unimaginable 10 years ago.

I think a lot of people get pressured into it by family or school - when you're academically successful there are a few avenues open to you, and everyone will pick what they think works best for them out of that selection. You have to pick *something*, often with limited data.

I always felt a bit sorry for people like that, because it's hard to be under a lot of pressure - and I hoped that they weren't putting a dream they desperately wanted, on hold to do medicine. I knew some people who pretty much openly admitted that their hearts really weren't into it, but they did it for their parents, and planned to at least live the most lucrative life they could live in medicine, probably leave the country or do mainly private practice, and retire early or move into a non-medical business field eventually.

I do wonder how some of them survived through the tougher parts of university and training - it's a lot of crap to go through if you don't really believe in any of it. And I hope they were good clinicians and kind to their patients - I know that there are plenty who aren't, but I can't honestly say whether that correlates to how passionate someone is about medicine. Because some of the most depressed, burned out and bitter people were absolutely passionate...before the system destroyed them.

Nobody's perfect, and I think all of us were under a degree of pressure to choose when we were younger. Now, I love drawing and it's a LOT more relaxing than medicine, let's be honest. The fact probably hasn't escaped my followers. But as a pretty nervous and realistic teen I was pretty sure that I couldn't make a living as an artist, and I grew up with an immigrant work ethic and the immigrant kid's knowledge that if I couldn't support myself nobody would be able to support me because the UK hates financially insolvent immigrants exponentially more than it hates financially insolvent natives - and it hates them plenty already. Anyhow I loved doing multiple things - drawing, writing etc but I also enjoyed science and genuinely loved the idea of being a vet or doc. Would I have pursued it if i was a billionaire's kid? Maybe not. But I think many of us at least considered the fact that it's a job with some security - even if we weren't pressured into it. We want to do good, but we're also aware that we can't feed ourselves without a job.

There are a lot of jobs now that didn't exist when I was at school, and to be honest, when you're doing career fairs or deciding what you like, there are many fields or jobs you will never have heard of or been exposed to, that you will have no idea if you may like or not. In my actual experience, a lot of people sort of fall into their life work through trial and error, further down the line.

i don't think this is unique to medicine though - my husband read science at Oxbridge because he liked it and was capable, and didn't really know what to do, then switched to working in another field after uni (and to be fair, jobs in science or academia are finite), and many of his friends also weren't sure what they wanted to do when they picked their degree courses. Fast forward many years and many people don't work in the field they went to university for, and many people tried a field for a few years (or even many years) and then decided to re-train.

I do think it's' better for people to try to pick something they genuinely enjoy doing, and that they can see themselves doing in the future - or at least can see paths they can reach through their training that they may genuinely want to pursue. Because that can make life easier. But in reality, we grow, we change our minds, we discover new things about ourselves or the jobs we are aware of.

i'm eighteen, in my final year of high school. i can tell you a million different reasons why i couldn't become a doctor. i'm extremely neurotic, i have shaky hands, i forget how to work when someone even so much as looks at me over my shoulder, i'm very intense and i am scared of blood (which i think that last one could be the easiest to fix among all of those) and probably more.

i know that doctors have to be almost perfect all the time, they are the opposite of everything i described. and i do not like to admit it but i am very easily stressed. finals have been incredibly stressful and it feels so big and consequential and life-or-death-like in my head, and i know it's only this way because how i do on this matters nearly the most to me, but i cant help but think that future doctors aren't supposed to be this way. they're not supposed to spiral under pressure and have breakdowns over something like a high school exam and yet here i am 😂

don't get me wrong, i dont think doctors are superhuman. but they do handle stress more effectively and i've been this way my whole life. i know i can change, but..

basically i just wanted to ask if you know of any doctors who somehow started off the way i did, i want to know the success rate here haha. i am just really drawn to medicine for family reasons, and i got a taste of it with my anatomy and physiology class which i actually love even if it's my toughest class.

Hey!

Most of the doctors I know started off as neurotic, anxious, socially awkward, introverted 17 year olds at some point, including myself. Sure, there's sometimes this idea that doctors should all be cut from the rich extroverted jock cloth, but whilst some people in the field are like that, plenty of us just aren't. We really don't have to be perfect all the time- I think that's a myth that society encourages. We're human, same as everyone else - and we have personalities, strengths and weaknesses, and actually have mental health issues at rates higher than the general public at large.

I actually think that it helps to struggle a little - to an extent - it helps us understand other people, and gives us a more realistic foundation when it comes to recognising that patients' lives are complex. Many of us have struggled with exams or our mental health at some point or other - many people are open about it on medblr, which is great.

Medblr's answer to this question would be:

I'd argue that a high school exam feels extremely important when that's the only exam you've sat - it's not unreasonable to find it hard. No matter how successful you are and how smart you are and how easy exams in school were, you WILL reach a point where you are challenged academically - where you may fail or at least not do as well as you expected. And honestly? the ones who did super well throughout often crumble the hardest when they suddenly realise they are small fish in a big pond and that everyone finds their limit at some point.

I do also think that the high pressure and intensity of medicine can certainly mean that it's not the best environment for some of us. And that sometimes the cost of trying to exist in these conditions is higher for some of us than for others. It's not always forgiving for those of us who struggle or who are neurodivergent. I don't blame anyone who sees the dumpster fire of medicine, and decides that this isn't what they want for their life - whatever stage of life they are in.

My mum often talks about how surprised she was that medicine treats us quite as badly as it does - I think the reality is something that we can discuss much more openly now than in the past. She's actually remarked that if I ever decide to do something else (rather like my husband left a non-medical job to do something else non-medical that he enjoys much more), she'd completely understand and approve.

We've been having a lot of medication shortages recently. And for a long time, we've known that brexit was a key component, but nobody talks about brexit any more.

For example, recently it was creon - a treatment that supplements pancreatic enzymes for patients whose pancreases don't work sufficiently well.

I've had multiple patients come in angry or in distress because one of their specialist medications has been either discontinued by the UK manufacturers or is no longer being imported. These are often medications that can't easily be switched to something else without specialist advice, and there's not always a good readily available alternative. And even if there is, sometimes it's not a medication we can prescribe until you are seen by a specialist. Which sucks when there's often a 6 month to 1 year wait to see them.

To make matters worse, whilst we get notified by big shortages, your hospital docs and GPs prescribing the meds really have no way of knowing what local stocks are like most of the time until a patient or pharmacy contacts them to let them know when there's a shortage.

Though there are one or two websites we can use for larger pharmacy chains, most of the time, I have no way to check if there are local shortages. It's not built into our prescribing software.

We usually have to rely a lot on on pharmacies to keep track of shortages, monitor their stock and let us and patients know what is or isn't available.

If anyone is interested in this Graphic Medicine conference, you can sign up to view it virtually here.

I'm aware that it's been some years since my previous medblr list and previous medblr roll call posts. Over the years we've built a thriving and supportive medblr community, which we've been really lucky to have. I'm using medblr in the widest sense, here - nurses, PAs, pharmacists abd all sorts of other professions are welcome.

Years have passed. Many of us have continued to live offline lives or post less frequently because work, kids, other interests and just life got in the way. Some have changed specialties. I know that there have been years I've been fairly quiet because life was busy! But even if you post infrequently, youre still a valued part of the community. Please feel free to reblog and add yourself to the list.

Some left the sphere of medicine, that's cool too - if you ever identified as a medblr, there's still a place for you here.

New medblr friends have joined - why not introduce yourselves? It would be great to make some new connections in this sphere.

I'm also curious about non medblrs who lurk here for fun.

I'll start first. I'm @dxmedstudent (she/her, late 30s), I also go by Tink (that predates my blog here and is somewhat unrelated). I started my blog here over 10 years ago when I was a UK med student writing med student comics which can still be found over at @dxmedicalstudent .

I spent some years in hospital medicine before becoming a GP this past summer. I haven't changed my name or icons in that time so if you think you remember me, you're probably right.

GMC figures show that on 28 February, 164,440 female doctors were licensed to practise medicine across the four home nations, 245 more than the 164,195 male medics on its register. That means that women make up a slight majority – 50.04% – of the country’s doctors and men, 49.96%.

It represents an astonishing change from the situation that existed in 1858, when Britain’s first medical register was created. It contained just one female doctor – Elizabeth Blackwell from the US – because no British woman in the country had acquired the necessary degree in medicine to be included.

“Medicine has historically been a male-dominated profession. In order to earn their rightful place within it women have endured bias, harassment, lower pay and often made huge sacrifices within their maternal and family lives. So this is indeed a day to celebrate,” said Dr Claudia Paoloni, a consultant anaesthetist who is the vice-president of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA).

Happy International Women's day, medblr girlies!

Being a female doctor isn't always easy. From patients assuming that they haven't seen a doctor at all (wasn't that a nurse?), and calling us by our first name whilst the male doctors and med students get to be Dr [Surname]...

... to the general automatic assumption that if you're a woman you're automatically less dedicated because 💫uteruses💫 and 💫having kids💫 and stuff. That you must be working part time, and if you are, you're depriving the public because you don't live at work all day every day 24/7.

Because of course your entire life's goal should be about giving maximum effort for the shareholders taxpayers rather than achieving a life balance that makes you a happy and fulfilled person as well as a clinician.

🏋️‍♀️ discovered a new gym

💉 learned to take blood

🍃 drove the bike everyday

☕️ drank coffee everyday

what i still want to do: