Ten Year Plans

With Alma Mata’s membership now 400-strong, it is now possible to use our collective weight as an advocacy tool for pushing global health into the new foundation programmes. As Rebecca Hope and Fred Martineau discussed in their Crossing Borders series, the new structure presents an opportunity to create exciting and innovative posts within the NHS career structure. But before the global health offensive can be launched, and in the spirit of our open and democratic organisation, members of the working group currently in Foundation Year 1 and those in the final stages of undergraduate study, were invited to complete the phrase “when I grow up I want to be…”.

Fifteen fascinating contributions later and we are now in a much stronger position to answer the question of what is a career in global health. This qualitative data trawl is planned as a precursor to a more comprehensive survey of all our members (now online) in due course, and allows common themes to be explored at that time. So (I hear you ask) what did they say?

Well, as if it needed saying, they are quite an ambitious bunch! Despite widely different and imaginative plans, patterns emerged and many ideas overlapped.

New training programmes for junior doctors in global health are becoming more possible

Experience

Plans for foundation years recogised the current lack of public/global health and academic research posts available. Many acknowledged that the likelihood of landing one of these jobs was remote and instead planned to go for the rotations offering combinations of infectious disease/genitourinary medicine/HIV, acute medicine/A and E, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, general practice or public health.

Many of the respondents plan to work abroad after gaining necessary clinical experience at home. No official plans exist at the moment to accommodate the growing number of newly trained doctors wishing to work abroad for extended periods, however members reckoned on about four years of UK work before eloping.

Organisations mentioned for overseas work included Medecins du Monde, Merlin, Skillshare, Voluntary Service Overseas, Medecins sans Frontieres and NHS links. If one was to place a pin on a map for each respondent’s destination, Asia, South America and Africa would be peppered with Alma Mata members. (If anyone wants or has the technical expertise to set up an online ‘virtual’ pin-map that members could update, that would be just wonderful.) (now online at WorldSearch)

Post-graduate courses were high on many people’s plans. Masters’ in Public Health courses were widely touted, with venues including London, Copenhagen and John Hopkins University. Those running diplomas in Tropical Medicine and Health should also anticipate high demand, especially those in Bangkok and London. Other options were Masters at the University of Cape Town in AIDS & Society.

For those who imagined they would be based primarily in the UK, the most popular
ultimate career was general practice, although several people expressed a desire to be a ‘GP with special interests’. One early idea, was the concept of a GP practice formed by our members and other like-minded folk, that encouraged a six month sabbatical abroad every two years that would allow members the opportunity to continue the projects undertaken earlier in their careers while still having a valuable and fulfilling role within the UK health system. Judging by the enthusiastic reception to this idea, this is one Utopian dream I wouldn’t bet against.

Many people described an ideal career containing frequent or prolonged periods working abroad. For a minority, the possibility of living permanently overseas was still open. Many envisaged their contribution to global health in the form of side projects in education, research and advocacy, and for one, the dream entailed a vegetarian, community café, possibly based within a general practice,promoting healthy living and community activities, with links to projects in the developing world.

Action
If you have any specific thoughts concerning foundation programmes in International Health, or if you are interested in trying to set one up in your deanery, please visit the new forum thread here and complete our questionnaire looking at your preferences for specialities included in an F2 International Health programme. Please get in touch if you'd like to be a part of the discussions about FY2.

Daniel Beck
Careers
daniel.beck@almamata.net