Pros: Consultants do encourage those interested to go into theater so this may be appealing for the surgically inclined. Cons: Terrible rotation with rubbish MDT. Nurses, pharmacist and consultants are generally unhelpful and rude (of course there are exceptions). Poor care from most if not all team members. Rota coordinator does not reply to emails and ignore our requests. Nursing team will refuse to do admission COVID swabs, so this falls on the junior doctors. What little training that was available was prioritised for ANPs over junior doctors. The on call SHO is expected to cover Cardiothoracic ITU, HDU and the base ward over the weekend. Absolutely burnt out by the end of the 4 month rotation.

Busy but well-supported and well-staffed. You stay in the same team (cons, reg, two juniors) for a week each time which is nice. Good handover arrangements, very rare to leave late. Senior support always available.

A severely dysfunctional department to work in. Juniors with no prior experience are readily expected to manage 2 wards (around 60-70) patients and cover triage due to rota gaps. Management refuse to accept issues with staffing and show no regard for wellbeing of their trainees. Midwives are variable but more often than not rude and on occasion aggressive towards junior doctors.

It helps to recognise that anyone who chooses to cut someone’s chest open must be slightly nuts. Juniors are spread across an ICU, HDU and 36 bedded ward. Consultants will rarely, if ever, visit the ward but you can relatively easily move sick patients from the ward to HDU. Also this rota has failed monitoring on multiple occasions which speaks for itself.

As an FY1, you are most likely to be placed on one of two general medicine wards of about 30 patients each. Staffing is quite variable - some days you’ll have lots of doctors and other days you’ll barely have enough. Twice weekly ward rounds by the consultants so you ward round yourself on other days. Phlebotomy cover is awful in my experience- it’s common for you to have to do a phleb round as well which really adds to the workload. On the plus side, the consultants are all very friendly and approachable.

Some consultants are lovely, some are very stereotypical surgeons. You stay in the same team for a week, so you’re either lucky or not.