Do you want to know the REAL reasons why being a GP is actually pretty cool? Are you thinking if you should choose GP? Let's go through the TOP 10 reasons to become a GP and hopefully inspire you to consider this career path if that is something you are interested in.
1. It’s not the hospital.
When I was doing my foundation and then GP training in hospital, I couldn’t really understand this sentiment that was expressed by my GP trainer. I mean, a job is a job, right? Hospital wasn’t that bad. I mean yeah, parking was a mess, bleeps were going off all the time, constant rota changes, lunch breaks were pretty short and the cues to the hospital cafe were awful at lunch, I mean lunch wasn’t great either and you kept on getting bleeps because, well there were a lot unwell patients in hospital… this is turning into a list isn’t it.
2. Continuity of care.
We all know what this means, so let’s move on.
3. No nights. EVER.
On my last night shift as a GPST2, even though it was rough, I had this idea that nights actually aren’t that bad, and especially if they pay well, I will probably do the odd night shift here and there for some extra cash. For all of you fully qualified GPs out there, leave me a comment with how many nights you have done since qualifying as a GP, because I haven’t really done that many to be honest. And when I say not that many, I mean I would probably rather eat my own hand off than start doing nights again…
4. Variety. Hmmm, how lovely.
5. Lunch breaks.
As you can imagine, I’m a slow eater, and if I’m chatting in the staff room, 30 minutes is rarely enough for me to finish eating. Plus, if we manage to sort out the visits quick enough, that gives you a good deal of time to do other interesting things, like quality improvement projects or audits, or research, or netflix, or medication reviews and other really important and time consuming things.
6. Flexibility.
Part-time, full-time, no time. GP can give you just that and more.
7. Flexibility again, but this time for real.
One of the most intriguing things I have ever heard was from a doctor who was doing a gynae clinic in hospital when I was doing my GP training. She was a GP and I asked her what the best thing about GP was and she said - The best thing about being a GP is not doing GP at all. She was a GP with special interest in gynae, so she was being paid registrar rates to help out in gynae clinics, but wasn’t part of the on-call rota - and she loved it. Loads of the University Tutors where I taught were massively reducing their clinical sessions to do more things elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong, I actually still enjoy being a GP, but you can really design your career any way you want.
8. Holistic Approach.
And that can actually sometimes make a much bigger impact than just dealing with 1 problem and sending your patient on their way.
9. Guidelines for everything.
If you’ve seen some of my videos you might have guessed by now that I love guidelines, protocols, shortcuts - anything that will make your day to day easier. And GP is just brilliant for that. In this video I covered all of the websites with guidelines that I use on a day to day and I have even created my own audiobook with GP specific guidelines - that is how much I love them. So if you do like guidelines, you will like GP.
10. Well, there’s a shortage of GPs.
So if you want to become one, just sign here and let’s you started! :)
#generalpractice#gplife#choosegp