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I’d like to dedicate this Frontline Friday to non-consultant hospital doctors across our health system. A diverse group of individual who are defined by something that they are not, they encompass the full swath of medical & surgical specialities, subspecialties and generalities
Sometime referenced as ‘junior doctors’ these individuals are anything but junior. They are among the frontline staff who will have most patient contact. They are also referenced by archaic names like ‘Senior House Officer’, ‘Registrar’, ‘Snr Registrar’ & ‘Specialist Registrar’
Most people know them as ‘Doctors’ and this is what we should call them.
Yes, some are still ‘doctors in training’ but then every doctor is a doctor in training, obliged to continuously develop and maintain their professional competence throughout their careers in Medicine.
Having completed between 6 – 8 years of undergraduate education, they will have anything up to another 10 – 13 years of additional formal training and subspecialising ahead of them before they get to call themselves ‘consultant’.
They are a key interface between our Interns and our Consultants. They work as part of a multi-disciplinary team and often lead their medical team.
They often are required to rotate between locations, hospitals and specialties perhaps every 3-6 months as part of their training. This is a major disruption to family lives.
With the advent of graduate entry medicine, many of these NCHD’s will be married and have their own families. By virtue of their years of extensive training, their parents may be elderly or retired.
Many have gone abroad to further their education and training. Many have returned to Ireland bringing fantastic experience and expertise to our health systems. Many hail from other countries and work here far away from their families and loved ones.
They are first and foremost people and they experience everything that everyone experiences – plus a lot more. They rent, seek a home, have relationship difficulties, experience depression, get injured, get caught speeding, play sports, climb mountains, get stressed, ...
.... like a glass of wine, hate going to the gym, have kids doing the leaving certificate….etc.
They also work exceptionally hard, in stressful conditions for long hours, often alone, invariably carrying full responsibility, with people who are at their most vulnerable. There isn’t enough of them and so each has to work exceptionally hard.
Some are bullied for not being super-super-heroes or perhaps just because their colleague has to vent to someone. They must park their own particular issues and concerns, put on a brave face and lead their colleagues in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
Some are visible. Others less so. Special personal shout out to two who are known to me through their twitter accounts but who I don’t know. @MROC_rockinit and @IRE_FJD, who try to speak out for other NCHD’s.
“I have good supports. I try to speak up for all of us as there are plenty less fortunate than me. Look after yourself in these challenging times and thank you as ever for the online support.”
“It’s hard to express stress in work because registrars are trying to keep it together for the SHOs and interns.”
Although they number in their 1,000’s, we’d like each and every one to know that we appreciate the sacrifices they make every day. But especially during these times.
