🩺 My Last Week as a Junior Doctor

📝 Doctor Kenji's Notes

Author

kenji tomita
July 20, 2024

Hey guys, I hope you all had a fantastic week!

Next week, I'm entering my second-to-last week ever as a foundation doctor. Since I didn't apply for speciality training, I will no longer have a permanent contract and, therefore, no guaranteed salary. Six years ago, I knew that the next five years would be dedicated to medical school. In my final year of medical school, I knew that the next two years would be spent training as a foundation doctor in a specific location. And just like that, 7 years flew by. But for the first time in eight years, I can no longer accurately predict what the next year or two will look like. Will I start specialty training in paediatrics? Will I continue to work as a doctor? Where in the UK will I live? Will I move abroad to experience a different lifestyle? There are so many unanswered questions, and predicting the future is impossible at the moment.

Throughout my life, I have always been risk-averse and inclined toward safety. Being in this position feels quite odd and very foreign to me. Although I'm somewhat nervous, I'm also super excited, which is something I didn't expect to feel. At some point in our lives, we all have to make a leap. We have to test the waters and see what else life has to offer. So here I am in my late 20s, taking that risk. Maybe it’ll work out, maybe it won't, but when I look back 10 years from now, I know for certain that I'll be proud of myself for not continuing down the path of safety into the preordained path of speciality training, where again, I would be locked into the next seven years.

I'm not so sure where this newsletter is going, but maybe this is a personal diary to myself, where I'll look back a year or two from now and smile that I took this risk.

So, my question to you in this week's newsletter is: Where do you fall on the spectrum of risk versus safety? Once you identify that position, are you happy with it, or is there something that you've been putting off changing for a while now? I hope you have a fantastic week and see you in the next one.

P.s I will still be working as a doctor, just in a different capacity 🙂 

👍🏾 Things I’ve enjoyed this week

  • Sun loungers (household item) - I bought these to use on my terrace at home but brought it to the beach yesterday and it's been an absolute game changer. They remind me of the ones you get in Europe on holiday and are super comfortable.

  • Wind up radio (tech) - coming from Kenya where the power cuts all the time, I bought this to use emergency radio/light just in case but can also bring it to camping or outdoors.

  • Portable fan (tech) - with it being hot in the UK over the last few days, I brought this small fan around with me everywhere and even to work.

📹 The latest video in case you missed it:

📚 Highlight of the week

"As we live our lives, we find ourselves confronted with a brute fact about how little we can know about our futures—just when it is most important to us that we do know. For many big life choices, we only learn what we need to know after we've done it, and we change ourselves in the process of doing it. I'll argue that, in the end, the best response to this situation is to choose based on whether we want to discover who we'll become."

It’s either one day or day one. You decide.

Greed is wanting the benefits of community without contributing to it.

"You help people when they need help, not when you are ready to help them."

Resurfaced to me by Readwise

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Want to learn more from me? Check these out👇

🩺 (Free) How to Get into Medical School - From Application to Doctor: https://skl.sh/2TwpH0N

👨🏼‍💻 An Essay Writing Masterclass - The Best Essay Writing Technique: https://courses.kenjitomita.co.uk

🏥 My Online Medicine Interview Course: https://courses.kenjitomita.co.uk

📑 Study notes, my university personal statements, dissertation and more:https://www.kenjitomita.co.uk/shop 

Please note: all profits are re-invested into the Youtube channel to pay for our resources and team to allow me to continue making free and informative content on YouTube whilst working full-time as a doctor.

🛠 My favourite tools 🔨

📚 Listen to my favourite book of all time (or any other) free on Audible

🥼 My daily hospital scrubs: HappyThreads

🎒 My everyday and travel bag from Menos (use KENJI10 for 10% off)

📝 My favourite iPad screen protector: Paperlike