Consultants

New consultants

So this is it - the pinnacle of your career, the culmination of all those years working towards getting to "the top".

And it feels great. Yet for some - maybe it doesn't feel like this.

There are many reasons why a new consultant might experience some ambivalence about being a consultant.

Don't feel quite ready or trained for the post and the many new tasks that keep appearing

Have been acting virtually as a consultant for a while and don't perceive many new challenges

Feels like a hollow victory or a career plateau for the next 30+ years

Still wondering if you are in the right career or right specialiity

Wondering what new career challenges you can now pursue or generate

You were hoping you'd have a bit more time for work-life balance but it doesn't seem any different - even worse!

You are wondering whether to do or how to get private practice when those around you seem to have oodles of it.

If you are just poised to get CCST you might consider the New Consultany Entry scheme which is run by NHS Professionals. It enables a new consultant to try out a post for six months but with some protected time each week (two sessions) for additional training and support activities.

It means you don't have to finally commit to any location or Trust but can ease into new consultant roles with just that little bit of extra support.

At Medical Forum we regularly see consultants within the first two years of their appointment. What most are looking for is to reevaluate where they are in their career and to gain some new career plans that are consistent with their interests, values, social situation, personality and more.

It is all too easy to let the busy service demands swamp ones own career needs - but do this at your peril as it is a recipe for burnout and disillusionment. It is, contrary to popular opinion, not selfish to want what you want and to fulfill your own career and personal needs through your career. This is the ONLY way that the NHS will continue to keep its doctors - ie providing careers that real people with real lives actually want to do and can do. But it is up to you to do your bit to define what this might mean - within reasonable and realistic parameters - for you personally.

Established consultants

Admittedly all of the above might just as well apply to consultants of many years standing., However the particular career challenges that a more established consultant might meet also include

ill health limitations

a desire to wind down towards retirement

a desire to combine clinical work with some non clinical roles

a vision of moving to a management or educational role

a desire to change career (eg within or outside medicine) temporarily (sabattical or unpaid leave) or permanently (one good eg of this we came across recently is a consultant microbiologist who felt he had done all there was to do in that field and is now retraining with renewed enthusiasm and vigour - at the age of 50 - to be a GP)

Links

BUPA sponsored web portal   www.consultantnet.org
Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association www.hcsa.com