Career development options events

 Our very first event was a wine bar meeting every third Thursday in 1989 - an informal meeting of doctors who were either diversifying their careers or wanted to explore their potential

Our first formal events was "what else can a doctor do" early in 1990

These were the first events of their kind - demonstrating how doctors could diversify their careers from mainstream medicine into fields such as journalism, management consulting and more.

Nowadays there are many events relating to career options available to clinicians - both within and outside medicine. Some of which we list on the calendar.

But in 1990 when we started there were none. There were no careers leads in each Trust or deanery either.

We like to think that we have been a key instigator in opening up career options and in the chip chip chipping away at the establishment promoting the need for more career guidance both within and outside the system.

And for those who think doctors should stay as doctors - two things......
Firstly - if the job was just lovely and fair and empowering and supported - few medics would ever question their career ( government please note!).

Secondly the way health care is going - it is VITAL more than ever before that some doctors start to influence health care from outside the NHS and bring innovation to health care delivery.