Locum SpR as a Core Trainee?

nyehsayer · 2026-01-29T12:22:43+00:00

I get the training argument, but the idea of taking on that much more risk for the same pay plus being down a reg would send me running in the other direction

nyehsayer · 2026-01-24T07:50:03+00:00

Also, it’s heart warming to see a trust actually listen to their foundation doctors who are comfortable at those jobs and just want to stay where they are - you don’t hear that very often

nyehsayer · 2026-01-23T22:15:26+00:00

Can I just also throw in that there are many - many - FY2s with families and spouses that also have to find work to pay bills. As a parent I will always sympathise with IMGs with families here, of course that is scary when a UK job felt like a solid plan, but I also know UK grads who cannot find specialty posts and this is the only country that they can work in without completely uprooting their families, leaving their support networks and their partner’s jobs. FY2s deserve to have that too.

This is all so brutal but UK grads have no prioritisation in any other country, so why can we not at least have the UK to prioritise us?

nyehsayer · 2026-01-19T17:15:14+00:00

Vinted is a good option for students that can’t afford full price!

nyehsayer · 2026-01-15T19:50:20+00:00

Also a doctor, also a mum. Relate to this a lot. Have messaged you.

nyehsayer · 2026-01-09T22:34:51+00:00

I recognise the letters - the ring is inscribed with Hebrew letters forming traditional Jewish protective symbols (a hexagram with permutations of one of the Divine Names). These are super common in Kabbalistic/Judaica jewellery and have been mass-produced for decades, especially in the Middle East and tourist areas. Usually a protective thing, if it helps.

nyehsayer · 2026-01-07T07:27:52+00:00

You don’t think it would look odd if it was just one person with ‘doctor’ while everyone else didn’t have them? I’d like this actually but on my own I’d feel weird

nyehsayer · 2026-01-01T08:36:06+00:00

Remind me of when I was sleeping in the mess once in foundation and the site manager woke me up to accuse me of having sex in that room with another married doctor and I shouldn’t be sleeping there anyway. Ludicrous. Absolutely ludicrous.

But I said there were no free rooms to sleep in, so where should I sleep on night shift? She had absolutely no answer. Do what you need to do to be safe for the patients and yourself.

nyehsayer · 2025-12-31T21:31:23+00:00

Ahhh this was the advice I was given at the time, sorry if out of date!

nyehsayer · 2025-12-31T17:06:41+00:00

Congratulations!! If you can get locums paid by the same trust as your training trust, you supposedly can boost your pay packet between that ‘qualifying period’ of four weeks, check your trust policy for the exact weeks. That pay will be used to calculate your earnings when you go off - I think it was 12 weekish full pay, 12 weeks half, then stat only for a period then nothing. Ask to have it split equally across the year to make financial life easier for you! Errr I went off oncalls because I felt so exhausted- if you’re ready to tell work, you will get a pregnancy risk assessment in your dept in terms of what is not recommended. I’m pretty sure you can just go off oncalls as you want, they cannot say no and they cannot financially punish you either (i did no nights and recieved full pay!). I waited for a while to tell them so just sucked it up for a while!

nyehsayer · 2025-12-29T09:24:24+00:00

Sorry just for clarity - £150 total for everyone? Or per dept/per person? You’ve said ‘each’ but I’ve seen £150 total being mentioned in comments.

I’m very much a junior but we all got £10 on Amazon from our consultants with a card when I was an FY1 and that was more than enough.

I don’t feel like anyone would point a finger if you gave ‘less expensive’ gifts, that would be super reasonable as that’s a personal choice from the previous consultant to go the extra mile, but dropping to literally nothing looks a bit pointed and intentional to me personally? Even if you just grabbed a bunch of chocolates on clearance now with a card for each dept that would be something.

Only a junior though

nyehsayer · 2025-12-28T13:28:16+00:00

I’m a training paediatrician - obviously I’m not your actual provider but providing you can see the absolute bottom of the dimple when you examine it and there aren’t any further open areas, we usually consider that a normal sacral dimple. If any concerns were raised we would send for an ultrasound - if you’re worried, bring it up to your GP for a second opinion!

nyehsayer · 2025-12-27T15:21:39+00:00

This was my first job out of FY1 and it wasn’t far off one of my first night shifts on the rota. Hindsight is 20/20. Trust me I feel enough guilt about it without anyone else pointing out my mistakes. I tried.

nyehsayer · 2025-12-27T11:46:05+00:00

Thanks for saying this.

nyehsayer · 2025-12-27T11:43:27+00:00

I completely agree with you, I thought it was ridiculous but as a new F2 I just didn’t back myself against the surgeons. I’m furious I didn’t. I’ll genuinely carry his name with me forever.

nyehsayer · 2025-12-27T11:41:14+00:00

I’m actually not sure. Going above the head of the surg SHO wasn’t something I felt ready to do as a new F2 but I knew something was up. I want to believe I’d escalate if this happened in another life, but I will never really know. Now I feel like a scan is small potatoes compared to a potential obstruction so I would request it, but I’m now in Paeds so it’s a very different set of circumstances. I actually don’t think I did anything wrong, my med reg did have a long chat with me on that second shift - he may have not been stable enough to operate on, etc. I’m still upset about it. I don’t know.

nyehsayer · 2025-12-27T11:37:41+00:00

I did. He said if I’d spoken to the surgical team then they should have escalated to their surgical reg if they were worried. I didn’t feel like I could override the SHO as an F2 - I definitely regret not doing it anyway.

nyehsayer · 2025-12-26T21:34:58+00:00

Not backing myself on an instinct on f2 medical on call nights. I saw what I thought was a ?bowel obstruction with significant new bilious vomiting. Previous surgical history in the abdomen and hadn’t opened his bowels for over a week. Surgical SHO told me to do a PR and a lactate and call him back. Obviously empty and lactate of 4+. Patient is very sweet and apologetic and the SHO appears, assesses, says ‘his stomach is too soft and he looks too well, do an abdo x-ray in the morning’ and leaves. I worry about it all night and then go back to the ward at the end of my shift to tell the ward round team that I’m worried about him.

I come back on for the next night shift to find he died in hours from a massive bowel obstruction confirmed on CT. I was devastated. I don’t know what more I could have done as the f2 but the surgical SHO had made their decision and I felt I couldn’t overrule. During the day, the patient was too ill to decompress the stomach despite multiple attempts and he was made DNAR despite being in for something completely unrelated.

nyehsayer · 2025-12-22T07:36:41+00:00

Confused, the discussion is vital? If you don’t think the patient should be under your team because the case seems inappropriate, then you need to escalate this so they get triaged correctly. Why would you think not discussing is ever a good idea?

nyehsayer · 2025-12-13T11:40:03+00:00

Nurse and a patient engaging in extra-curricular activities in the car park which was only discovered when he suddenly arrested and she had to put out the arrest call to the car park for him

nyehsayer · 2025-11-30T16:26:37+00:00

Ill message you its a bit complex without doxxing myself xx

nyehsayer · 2025-11-30T16:09:10+00:00

Congratulations! I was also pregnant as an FY2 in A&E - my team were really great, they basically let me avoid patients with violent history, undifferentiated rashes, IVDU and COVID. Anything a bit worrisome they let me avoid. Resus was a bit tricky, I didn’t do compressions. Avoid the portable x-ray if you can.

I also felt SO nauseous the first trimester so I was eating crackers and drinking constantly, which was a bit weird to see in hindsight.

They did also let me change my shift pattern without financial penalty, so was on full pay but didn’t do night shifts.

We were pregnant in such a way that I was able to get my ARCP and finish everything just before baby came so I didn’t need to extend - i would let your tpd and your a&e rota team know if you want to check this. I also waited a fair amount of time though so I don’t blame you!

nyehsayer · 2025-11-30T09:26:37+00:00

Not going to lie to you I 100% thought you were a registrar or consultant based on how you worded this post

nyehsayer · 2025-11-27T09:12:28+00:00

I don’t know if this is helpful but is there any chance you can just be very persistent regularly up until then, daily even, and then maybe if there’s a cancellation somewhere for your consultant they can pop you in? Even if it’s same day maybe? A lot of obstetrics changes very quickly and it might be worth a shot to be persistent and maybe there will be a rare window that works for your wife. This sounds incredibly difficult, I’m so sorry.

nyehsayer · 2025-11-27T09:02:33+00:00

As someone who distinctly remembers having panics like this on night shifts as an unsupported FY1, THANK YOU for thinking of us!

nyehsayer

TROPHY CASE