Hospital Doctor
The Specialties
Hospital Doctors have many specialties, some of these are, anaesthetics; emergency medicine; general medicine; general surgery; obstetrics and gynaecology; paediatrics; psychiatry; trauma and orthopaedics. All of these specialties are included in a doctors life, some of them varying depending on what type of doctor you want to become.
Typical work activites
The acticities of a doctor also vary depending an the type of doctor you want to become. Sone of the main activities are: monitoring and providing general care to patients on hospital wards and in outpatient clinics, admitting patients requiring special care followed by investigations and treatment, examining and talking to patients to diagnose their medical conditions, carrying out specific procedures, e.g. performing operations and specialist investigations, making notes, both as a legal record of treatment and for the benefit of other healthcare professionals, working with other doctors as part of a team, either in the same department or within other specialties, liaising with other medical and non-medical staff in the hospital to ensure quality treatment, promoting health education, undertaking managerial responsibilities such as planning the workload and staffing of the department, especially at more senior levels, teaching junior doctors and medical students, as well as auditing and research. All of these contibute to a doctors shift.
Salary and conditions
Junior doctors in their first year earn a basic salary of around £22,400 a year. The basic salary in year 2 increases to £27,800. This is based on the amount of work and the number of hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week and/or work outside the hours of 7am - 7pm, Monday to Friday.Doctors in specialist training earn a basic salary of around £29,700 plus supplement.Consultants earn a basic annual salary of between around £74,500 and £100,400 depending on length of service and payment of additional performance-related awards.Doctors often work very long and unsocial hours, including weekends, evenings and nights (usually on a rota basis), although working hours vary according to specialty. The European Working Time Directive (EWTD) has made it illegal for junior doctors to work more than 48 hours a week which means junior doctors wont get as tired as quickly.
Ater training
after your training, you can apply for entry directly into specialist training (ST). Doctors follow a competency-based rotational programme, which focuses on their chosen medical specialty. Typical specialties include surgery, medicine and acute care.