It was my own fault for falling in love with a fellow medical student and marrying her 2 days after we graduated. Apart from never doing nights at the same time, our first Foundation Year worked out rather well. Then there was the small matter of the arrival of a new baby in Foundation Year 2.
Becky returned to work full-time as a Foundation Year 2 doctor while I was an StR1 on a GP vocational training scheme. As a result of busy jobs with long hours our daughter spent more of her waking hours in nursery than with us. We would swap our on-calls to make sure they didn't clash and so someone was free to collect her from nursery.
We therefore decided that I would work less than full-time (LTFT) and look after our daughter, with the help of our extended family. Becky was keen to get through her hospital jobs speedily to train as a GP as well.
Any notion I had about the flexibility of LTFT training soon disappeared. Every 8 months I changed jobs and worked on different days of the week in different placements. Furthermore, I would usually swap the days of the week I worked half way through the post, to make sure I wasn't missing out on learning opportunities. It is impossible to chop and change the days your child spends at a popular nursery.
So for the last year or so we've used a mixture of nursery and help from extended family to provide care for our daughter. Paying for nursery 5 days a week to keep our options open for changing working days of the week was not an attractive option when my salary had been chopped.
Choosing to work as an LTFT trainee is one of the best career decisions I have made. It's given me the opportunity to see more of my children as they grow up and to not merely survive, but thrive and learn in my hospital posts. However, one thing I have realised is that in my experience, LTFT is certainly not flexible.
‘Nobody on his deathbed ever said, “I wish I had spent more time at the office”.’ Senator Paul Tsongas (1941–1997)
- © British Journal of General Practice, 2010.