Doctors Face Unexpected Hurdles Returning to Medicine, Some Find Retraining Easier
London - A growing number of doctors are finding the path back to clinical practice after career breaks surprisingly difficult, with some reporting it’s easier to retrain in a completely new profession than to regain their medical footing. The challenges, highlighted in a BMJ investigation, center around a lack of structured support and confidence-building programs for returning physicians.
Vicky Tate,a former GP trainee and mother of three from Oxfordshire,experienced this firsthand. After a 10-year break to raise her family, Tate secured a supernumerary second-year foundation trainee position at her local hospital in 2020, working three days a week. However, she was forced to resign after just a couple of months.
“Deciding to resign was such a hard decision to make. Part of me still regrets it,” Tate admits. The strain of balancing a new role, remembering lapsed clinical skills, childcare responsibilities, and her husband’s work/homeschooling commitments during the pandemic proved insurmountable. “I just wasn’t able to balance everything. It wasn’t the right time so I decided to stop.”
Tate believes a more formalized return-to-work pathway could have made a crucial difference. “I didn’t feel clinically confident and I was nervous doing the practical things,so I would have found a structured program where I could go over some of the basic clinical tasks,like taking bloods and inserting cannulas,as well as things like learning the new IT system,helpful. It would have made a big difference in building my confidence.”
She also emphasized the need for peer support.”And it would have been helpful to be networked with other people in a similar situation,” Tate adds. ”I just think I needed a bit more hand holding.”
The BMJ has interviewed multiple doctors who have encountered similar obstacles when attempting to re-enter the medical profession after extended absences,suggesting Tate’s experience is not isolated. The lack of a centralized support system appears to be a key contributing factor to these difficulties.
By Adele Waters
awaters{at}bmj.com
