Why You Should Choose General Practice | Ten Reasons To Become a GP | General Practice

In this video, I will be discussing the advantages of general practice and why you should (if not already) consider a career in general practice of family medicine. It's a good time to do another, updated video given that there have been a few changes over the years, especially due to the pandemic and the use of technology. I will be discussing TEN advantages of general practice and explaining why you should strongly consider a career in general practice! All music from Epidemic Sound - Get your 30 day FREE trial by clicking this affiliate link - https://share.epidemicsound.com/qsw1ep Click on the link below to purchase some of the products I use as a GP from Medisave https://www.medisave.co.uk/?a_aid=drp... 0:00 Intro 2:28 There are multiple ways of working as a GP: Once you qualify you can work as a salaried (so employed) , locum (usually as self employed or as part of a limited company of something called chambers), or partner (self employed GP running a practice). It does not have to be all or nothing, lots of GPs work as a salaried and locum GP. You can work various sessions - where one session could be 4 hours of work, or one clinic. You can work one day or two sessions, six sessions or 3 days. You can spread your sessions across the week, especially if you are a locum GP where you have much more flexibility. You can work as a remote GP, part remote and based at a surgery so a hybrid role or traditionally based at a surgery. I think since the pandemic there has been a shift to more hybrid working. So, you could spend most of your time at a surgery and then have one day working from home. This does help many surgeries because sometimes there could be struggles with room space. Working remotely means that you can technically work anywhere. In previous jobs I have worked with GPs based outside of the UK, for example based in Canada. If you want to know more about how you can work remotely drop me a message in the comments. I also have a video on the advantages of working remotely. You can work for the NHS and in the private sector. As above you can work remotely for both the NHS and private sector. 4:17 Good earning potential: As a GP you have the capacity to earn a good salary - this is via working in the various ways as above. Locuming can be quite lucrative and has good flexibility options too. As you may know you can earn equal to, if not more than some hospital consultants depending on what you do. I do not want you to think that it is easy because like I have said in other videos it’s about how much you put in; you might have to work long hours or deal with medical complexity and a number of other issues. As I have spoken about in a previous video you can take on other roles. 5:53 Opportunities :Let’s face it as nice as it is to complete medical school and call yourself a doctor, the journey is just beginning. When you embark on a training programme and finally complete your training you ultimately become more credible. 6:42 Work/life balance: One of the big advantages of choosing general practice is the ability to have a better work life balance relative to working in the hospital. 7:42 Career prospects: General practice can act as a foundation for other careers such as palliative medicine and occupational medicine. You can also work as a functional medical assessor. You can become a GPwSI and work as a sports club doctor. You can also set up your own private practice as a GP. 8:20 The use of technology (compared to some hospitals): One big advantage of working in general practice is the use of technology compared to working in some hospitals. General practice also uses apps and integrated systems such as econsult which helps triage patients - so patients can be prioritised according to need. 9:23 Multiple specialties (can’t seem to find just one that’s right for you?) The benefit of choosing general practice is that you don’t have to choose one specialty which I know can be hard to do, especially as early on as a foundation doctor. 10:36 Continuity of care: As a GP, despite what many might say, there is still lots of opportunity to continue to care for the same patients and get to know patients well. 11:20 Lots of support, contrary to popular belief! You might think that as a GP you can be isolated and that might be true in some cases. But if you are great at working independently then general practice might be for you. As much as you consult patients alone you generally have someone around who can help. 12:29 Access to investigations - just like the hospital physicians! Although there can be issues, again issues that also occur in the hospital. There is access to blood tests, including some specialist blood tests, as well as imaging like CT/USS and MRIs. This can also be prioritised based on urgency. 13:32 Outro #generalpractice #generalpractitioner #familymedicine