This week I met up with Jenni Burton (@JenniKBurton) she’s one of the smartest people I know and I love when we get time to have a proper catch up.
Predictably as two medics we got to talking about all things work related. In particular education, training and rotas
I’d been involved in meetings this week about how the medical rota was running. It’s no secret that we’ve had problems and I’d come on board in recent months to help.
Managing a rota can be a bit of a poison chalice to be honest. There’s a constant tension in trying to deliver both training and service so it can seem that no one is ever happy!
Of course what doesn’t help is some people going down memory lane and thus any discussion turns into the Four Yorkshireman, Monty Python sketch.
‘You were lucky to work 100 hours a week, we used to work a 100 hours a DAY!’
I think that with any rota it’s important to acknowledge that in many ways things have got better. However we are working in a different culture. One where the focus seems to be on the training experience and less about the work itself. I don’t think the balance is quite right.
So I think we need to be honest about what we can and can’t deliver training wise while trying to maintain a proper service.
It occurred to me as we were talking that while I spend a lot of time ‘clarifying understanding and expectation’ with my patients and their relatives, I don’t always extend that to our junior medical staff. What I mean by that is clearly defining expectations and explain some of the decision making process.
As an organisation we need to be up front about saying there are two choices:
1. The best training experience you will get is not through going on umpteen courses, it is by being at work. Going on ward rounds, getting to clinic, talking to relatives, running the acute take etc. This is enhanced by continuity i.e. keeping you on the same ward most of the time. In order to deliver that it is going to mean compromise. In this case fixed annual leave, less study leave and few swaps.
Or you can have this experience:
2. You get to go to all your study leave, have your holidays when you want but the overall team will be spread extremely thin. The compromise here is you accept that you will be moved around a lot to cover gaps. You may even have to do more on calls.
You cannot have both.
There is a service to run and sick patients who need doctors of every grade to look after them. There’s also the fact that you also get paid for this and quite well, relatively speaking. That in itself comes with professional T&Cs that come with taking on this job.
It’s not just Forth Valley that haven’t got the rota quite right yet. I do think we need to try different things and see what works. Jenni was telling me that when she worked in Leicester they offered exit interviews for trainees. I think this is a great idea and much better then the trainee surveys (they always seem slightly out of date and skewed depending on the number of replies).
Potentially real time change could be achieved by allowing trainees to shape and deliver their training while keeping it in line with local needs.
What we don’t need is a talking shop where we are seen to be engaging with trainees but won’t follow through with the difficult conversations or decisions. Of course none of this should be done in isolation. It is as important to have these discussions with Consultant and Nursing colleagues. I don’t really think we have really acknowledged that their role is also changing as we have more gaps/less trainees.
I do believe we will ultimately get this right. It may be a long time coming but I do believe a change is going to come…
Sparklystar55 