I 28M, am an Anaesthetic core trainee. I’ve always been straight, or at least I thought so. I’ve been in serious relationships with women and have never thought of guys in a romantic way.

HOWEVER

I rotated to a new hospital in February and there’s this consultant who has spun my head. He’s early 40s, straight, wife, kids. His presence is just so calming and magnetic and I can’t quite tell if I want him or want to be him.

Since February, I’ve worked with him a quite a lot, and because of the nature of anaesthetic training, we spend a lot of time chatting about family, hobbies, and some other really profound things. The man is just perfect. He’s in great shape and we bond over fitness, he’s great with patients, kind, good with trainees and all theatre staff, and is an incredible anaesthetist. He is exactly the kind of consultant I want to be. At first I thought I just admired him but lately, when I speak to him, I get nervous, I get butterflies, I’m even starting to stutter. When I know I’ll be on a list with him, I do a bit of reading beforehand to impress him, check myself in the mirror to make sure I look okay, and I even wear my nice cologne (I never wear the nice stuff to work).

The reason this has confused me is because I’m not actually sure I’m into guys and don’t find any other guys attractive at all, but I mean this wholeheartedly, if he was single and interested, I would be keen. I don’t think this is just a man crush. This has never happened to me before, I feel confused, lost and I am questioning everything I thought I knew about myself.

Thoughts? Is this weird?

Hi all. I am a physician based in the USA and I have a question for my colleagues across the pond. Do you all struggle with note bloat? In case this is not a transatlantic term, note bloat refers to excessive copy-pasting of labs, imaging reports, etc into a progress note. I’ve found that midlevels and residents tend to be the worst offenders. I understand that it’s faster than reading, interpreting, and writing a concise summary, but it’s onerous to sift through and often challenging to track what is actually going on with the patient day to day.

This is a pet peeve of mine. Most days I let it go, but today it’s bugging me more than usual. Do you all have this problem at your hospitals?

Edit: Well, it seems pretty clear that this is an international issue. Stay strong, comrades!

Something to the effect of “frequent sick days, leaving rota gap and service pressures, costing trust money for locum”.

For context I have a couple of chronic conditions which my ES knows about so this was brushed off and had met with OH before.

Had about 5 days off sick in the last 3 months. And I always inform them as soon as I knew I can’t make it to work and follow all the procedures according to department’s policy.

Though before writing something like that if they’d have asked me then I could have easily explained that I’m not skiving off for fun.

I’m not sure if I should approach the person to explain or just leave it as my ES is not bothered?

Just stumbled across a video of an American medical student who got heavily harassed online by both doctors and the public after posting a (quite insensitive) video of him joking about the female anatomy. Lots of videos and posts followed, especially from other doctors eagerly inciting people to punish him, suspend him, requests for public humiliation, and rumours that he had been expelled from his med school. People thought that they had achieve their goal and that's why he went silent online. But apparently it was because he had a major attempt to end his life and ended up in ICU.

It just very randomly reminded of my own experience during my first job as an FY1. I used to get relentlessly bullied by the IMT on my ward, to the point of self-harming, unsuccessful ODs, and having constant fantasies about ending my own life as the only relief. No one seemed to want to believe me, the consultants would just make it worse, and the other juniors would tell me I should accept this situation and take it because he was my senior and I was the most junior member of the team. The job ended, life is the same, but thankfully I never once again experienced something to that level, but thinking about it still upsets me.

It's so random because my situation was very different from this influencer's, but it helped me to come to terms with the fact that that our profession is full of morally virtuous people, self-proclaimed mental health advocates who also push people toward ending their life. And that I have no faith that it will ever get better.

Can we get rid of this stupid Exam Please

Im a new resident doctor starting soon and I was wondering what the attitudes are too having less “conventional” scrub designs/colours, loud badges/lanyards etc. I’m big into fashion and have found that sometimes standing out on the ward is not received positively (mainly by my fellow female colleagues unfortunately).

However, I also want to give off a good first impression and I’ve been told before that people are always surprised by my capabilities or they “didn’t think I would act the way I do” after they have gotten to know me and I’m always aware its solely because I do still enjoy to look done up while on a painfully boring ward round. Any seniors that can give any advice or tips? Shall I ease my personality in or should I just be confident in who I am from the start?

I thought it was possible to work as a bank doctor as a locum for

two NHS trusts at the same time. However, when I applied to the second trust, they told me that I needed to be marked as a ‘leaver’ by my previous trust before they could add me as a ‘joiner’. I was under the impression that there shouldn’t be any issue with being registered on the bank at two trusts. Is this an administrative requirement, or is there a rule preventing this?

Has anyone had an IMT rotation with no nights ?

I have to sit the ALS in a weeks time, it’s the 1 day course and I’ve completed the e-ALS material, but it seems like it’s gone in one ear and out the other. I still have the MCQ to do, I’ve been reading the book but just feel overwhelmed. I’ve not done anything medicine related for most of the summer, and am kind of worried I’ve forgotten everything.

Starting specialty training in August at 80% LTFT for wellbeing and family.

Which day of the week is best for none working day?

I have to choose between Tuesday and Thursday.

Incoming IMT/ACF trainee in gastro. Would massively appreciate guidance/tips regarding:

1. Managing portfolio - important tips

2. Building academic portfolio

3. Any IMT-ACF been in-similar position giving part 1 in jan diet of imt 1? Any advise appreciated. How did you plan the rest of the sittings for part 2 and PACES

Is it worth joining a royal college or for now just paying upfront for portfolio fees

If I have an exam(MRCP) on a scheduled day off prior to my night shift- do I get a day in lieu for this? (Northern Ireland)

Has anyone rotated in salford royal as IMT 1/2/3. How was your experience in training?
Any tips/advises?

How to plan clinic week?

What do you guys think would be a safe score for UKG for IMT 2027 in terms of shortlisting (given the new scoring criteria)? Would 17 be OK?

Had 19 days of TOOT, with 6 being strikes this year. Was diagnosed with disc herniation and celiac disease which contributed to most sickness. Was told 14 days is limit of TOOT for a GPST1. ARCP coming up, what will happen/likelihood?

Hello everyone!

I am an incoming F1, starting this time next week!

I have been longing for a double mastectomy for a long while now, and I am looking into booking it now that I will have an income. I just have a few questions about leave regarding this.

Am I right that as this is seen as a cosmetic surgery this will need to be done using annual leave?

From what I have read I will be able to return to work after 2 weeks, but will need amended duties until about 6 weeks. How likely is this? I understand I only ave 9 days annual leave per rotation. Is there anyway I can make this work?

Thank you!

ETA: kinda sad to see this and my comments getting downvoted :/

I was put forward for GIC, however I'm about to transfer (whenever that happens, I'm on a break until then). Is it cheeky of me to apply for study budget for the GIC before I transfer deaneries? Obviously TPD aware of intention to IDT.

I have to do an extension at the end of FY2 for a couple months due to time taken off work for health reasons. I am unable to get any interviews for clinical fellow jobs primarily because they start in August and I finish FY2 couple months later. Do I wait until there are JCF positions released later on during FY3 and try to find locums in the meantime? What are my options?

Sat Msra last year and the sjt basically botched it for me.
I was using pass medicine mainly which gave me what I realised too late a false sense of security with sjt, because when I started doing Samson mocks the week before I was scoring measly 20%.
I’ve heard various resources but wonder specifically which ones are best for sjt?
Also would you recommend reading around eg, gmc good practice guidelines?
Just feels so hard to revise for tbh.

Hello everyone,

I am looking for some advice in regards to preparing for the cCrISP course. I'd really appreciate some tips as I have heard it can be difficult for doctors who haven't got much of a surgical experience or haven't completed their ATLS.

1. How can I read about the manual and prep efficiently for the case scenarios?

2. How long does it ideally take to master the course materials and ace the course?

   1. Are there any other resources that would help?

Many thanks!

Feel absolutely clueless booking paces
Is there any difference to which college you apply to? I live /train in Glasgow but not sure if one is superior to another. I’d ideally like to sit towards the end of diet- how do I convey that message to them? Do they actually read what’s written in those white spaces?
I’ve just sat my part 2 (second attempt) and have a good feeling and ideally would want to sit paces this year as I’ll be halfway through IMT2 then . Going to start prep from next week hence would want to sit towards the end of the diet
Anything else I’m missing to consider whilst booking paces?

Hello everyone,

I'm starting IMT in Northern Ireland this year. I have a dermatology rotation scheduled in IMT2.

As a trust doctor in internal medicine, I regularly attended the British Association of Dermatologists' Annual Meeting and a few other dermatology related courses, using my study budget without any issues.

I wanted to check whether I'd have similar access to study budget for dermatology related events during IMT1 and IMT2, given it's directly relevant to my career plans and I'll be doing a derm rotation as part of the programme.

Thank you

Hi guys any recommendation what you use for the stats section? Are the SPMM videos worth buying?

Hi I am just finishing my FY2 year and am thinking of applying for EM for next year.

Can any EM trainee clarify a few things please as I am a little confused.

1. What I have heard is that your portfolio is used to shortlist for interview ? Is that accurate ?

2. If you score well in MSRA can you still get a invite to interview if you have ok'ish portfolio ?

3. I can see that the scoring criteria for EM has 8 categories and max 3 points each, whats a good scoring to aim for generally ?

Any advise and guidance from some EM seniors would be helpful

Which Question Bank would you recommend for the MRCPCH Theory Exams?