This is not #tipsfornewdocs, this is suggestions for seasoned physicians (ok fine, its tips for new sprs).

1. Don’t ever apologise for how many people are waiting to be seen at handover. You don’t control the how ill the public is and it is bizarre we give each other a hard time about this. My preference is always 10 waiting vs 5 waiting and 5 seen in a rush, half done.

2. Never do something yourself because “it’s just easier”. This means you’re opening yourself to being dumped on and people around you will pick up on this pretty quickly. It also takes away opportunity from others who need to learn to do things properly.

3. Don’t feel bad about responding to emails or doing some admin out of hours. People will always pick up at what time you respond to emails, they usually then tell you not to respond so late, not remembering we aren’t given time to do these things at work.

4. Always dictate your clinic letters the same day even if you need to stay late. It’s such a drag doing it any other time.

5. You could have seen 13 patients on nights, run three cardiac arrests and reviewed countless unwell patients. The only feedback you’ll probably get is “you didn’t do this AMTS for a lady with advanced dementia”. Ignore it. Those consultants don’t get it and never will.

6. It’s the bosses name over the bed. No point getting annoyed or upset if you disagree with their plan. It’s all about respectfully disagreeing but there are some consultants who will not want to engage in discussions about plans. Sometimes it’s a good thing we move every year.

7. Feedback is the most meaningful when it comes from someone you respect and trust. So “feedback” from someone who doesn’t know you, mostly means nothing.

8. If you don’t doubt yourself regularly then you’re not even a doctor. The SpR doubts are much worse because the stakes and expectations are much higher. This massively evaporated for me when I couldn’t do more than my best.

9. If you don’t know, say you don’t know. It’s so liberating. It also means people can’t make their problems yours because most of them shouldn’t be. “Discussed with Med SpR - who has no idea” does have a bit of a ring to it.

10. Protect your workload. When you’re on call, you’re there to review that total disaster multi-organ failure that ends up in resus. That’s what you’re waiting for.

11. Ask your F1s and SHOs their history and get to know them. I was on call once with an ST6 surgical registrar turned GP trainee, and an F1 who was a maxfax trainee. These are MAD skillz you can utilise on take.

12. I became very friendly with not just the other medical regs, but with other specialties like O and G, and surgery, just by being SUPER helpful (even a bit OTT) the first time they asked. They really do remember it, and really go out of their way to help you.

13. Confront rudeness. If they can be rude to the person who runs the tightest ship, they will be rude to others. Rudeness is the interaction that puts people off this joyful career. It makes people feel like shit. Bizarrely you have the gravitas to make people reflect on this.

No end tweet about enjoy it! Or it’s the best job! Or medicine is brilliant! It’s great when it needs to be, a bit like a good date when you least expect it, and just like dating, you really do enjoy sharing all the horror stories and SpRs definitely have the best ones.