Anyone know anything about Medicine/ graduate entry medicine

I don't know anyone that has had a bad time in Australia or NZ working as a doctor. Employment seems easy enough to get hold of unless you want to do something very specialised or have to work in Sydney.

How old are you? I don't think you should be put off due to age, but being a junior doctor is a young person's game. Shift working is tiring and disruptive on life and if you're used to being respected and revered at work expect to be humbled and start again at the very bottom of the pile.

The good definitely outweighs the bad though and it can be hugely rewarding.
 
I don't know anyone that has had a bad time in Australia or NZ working as a doctor. Employment seems easy enough to get hold of unless you want to do something very specialised or have to work in Sydney.

How old are you? I don't think you should be put off due to age, but being a junior doctor is a young person's game. Shift working is tiring and disruptive on life and if you're used to being respected and revered at work expect to be humbled and start again at the very bottom of the pile.

The good definitely outweighs the bad though and it can be hugely rewarding.

I am 32, at the moment but would be 34 by the time I could start a med degree. I am philosophical about the work load I will face as a junior doctor. I have 2 young kids at the moment (3 & 0), and I have been very lucky to have been able to spend a lot of time with them at the moment, including a couple of years as a stay at home dad. Therefore if I have to work unsociable hours etc in the future, I would feel that life has kind of balanced out.
 
Graduate entry into Medicine is incredibly difficult to get into. A lot of people with Biochemistry do head that way but it's likely you'd need to broaden up your CV a little. On the whole, I found the grads very very good. Their great learners and extremely determined so I'm sure academically you'll be fine.

What I would say it that seriously think long and hard about your situation. You'll be 34 when entering, so 38/39 when you graduate. Expect to be working for a minimum of 5 years as a junior doctor and all that entails. You WILL be the dogsbody of the wards, your hours will be unsociable and your pay will be pretty poor too for that time. If you can live being in your 40s and working as a junior doctor then great but I know I couldn't do it at that age.

Certainly don't do it for the money. Long gone are the days of GP's earning 150K etc. Expect a starting salary of around £25K typically for a FY1 (with two banded jobs and one unbanded normally) but the pay will go up to around £30-35K in the following years. The pay jump between FY1 and FY2 is typically around £4K then you also will be doing more oncalls etc.

Expect to be working 1 in 3 or 4 weekends (excluding mid-week night shifts) for your average banded job and some rotations like Emergency Medicine 1 in 2. (During A&E I was working around an 80 hour week on night shifts exluding 1.5hrs travelling each day for example). You will be sacrificing finances and family life for the best part of 10 years!

It's not all doom and gloom though, it is thouroughly rewarding and job satisfaction is right up there!:)

I was watching a show on BBC about junior doctors and they said they earned around 21-22k in their first year. But I don't think that includes overtime etc if they get it.

You'd be lucky. No such thing as overtime. There's banded jobs and unbanded. So banded is where your hours included in the rota and you are payed as such. As for overtime...no chance. At one point I was averaging 15 hours overtime in a typical 5 day week...you'll never see a penny!:D
 
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What I would say it that seriously think long and hard about your situation. You'll be 34 when entering, so 38/39 when you graduate. Expect to be working for a minimum of 5 years as a junior doctor and all that entails. You WILL be the dogsbody of the wards, your hours will be unsociable and your pay will be pretty poor too for that time. If you can live being in your 40s and working as a junior doctor then great but I know I couldn't do it at that age.

Whilst the majority of grad docs that I've worked with have been fantastic, my criticism of the few is that they seemed to think that they were above all of the ward work which is essential for the hospital and the team to function. A few thoughts they were consultants and acted like they were. A very dangerous thing indeed!

If you're 34 when you start and you go straight through to specialist training without a gap you'll be 42. For anything but GP (but soon to follow suit) it's another 5 years minimum on top. That leaves you at 47 minimum before consultancy. If I sail through my training I'll be 34 when I get my CCT certificate. In reality with some research and a fellowship that will add to the time. I haven't paused for breath since A-levels and I don't see me taking my foot off the gas any time soon!

You'd have to want it one hell of a lot to go through with it.
 
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