Ev'rybody Needs Good...

...Advice.

It used to be that a career in Medicine meant you were as good as guaranteed a job for life. With hard work, exams, research, you could go into any specialty you wanted and maybe one day become the best.

But now, in a desperate political bid to please the public and provide more doctors at Consultant level, the career structure is being given a total overhaul and the process is being streamlined.
What it boils down to is that half of all newly-qualified doctors will be fast-tracked and called "Consultants" after only 7-9 years experience, with the remainder staying as temporary trust grade doctors but doing the same work.
Everyone can have a job, but you won't have much of a say where in the country or in which specialty it will be. The flowchart even has a suspiciously large yellow box with the option "Leave Medicine".

We're desperate. The application forms are being published soon. We need to be told what to expect and how to boost our chances of being able to follow our own chosen career path once MMC (Mismanaging Modernising Medical Careers) comes into force.

It's a very unstable time. We need guidance. I turned to this week's edition of BMJ Careers to see if the British Medical Association, the largest support organisation for doctors, have any helpful words.

Biggest story? An interview with Dr Karl Kennedy from Neighbours.

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