Question about commuting to FY1s and FY2s

Hey all!

I am starting FY1 in August and have recently been given my allocation ( North West Deanery) . I am going to have to live about 30-35 miles away from the hospital and according to google maps it will take me 35-45 mins (one way) to commute each day! :s-smilie:

Living in/ near my workplace is not possible as im having to move to an area that will be half way for me and my partner and thats the best I could do in terms of location :s-smilie:

My questions are:

1) is this a reasonable amount of time?

2) what is your daily commute time?+ do u drive /take the train? +how are you finding it? What are your shifts like?

Lol so many questions any help would be much appreciated! Thanks! :h:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 1

Elles

I've commuted across London 45-60 minutes each way for specialty training & it seemed a fairly standard commute. I did 1A/1B type rotas doing this including nights/weekends.

This was travelling by tube/train though.

If driving then there could be a concern about safety after long shifts/nights.

For FY1 & FY2 I moved each year as they were a much larger geographical area than specialty training for me (though I understand for some people it's the other way round) - do you have any other compromise locations? Is there any hospital accommodation available if you found it too much on a run of on calls? What's the long term location plan? Etc. might be things to think about.

Reply 2

Becca-Sarah

Atm I drive 45 mins (AM) and 30 mins (PM) each day. Last year it was up to 90 mins (Monday AM), minimum 20 mins (weekend evenings). I'm now looking at an F3 job that will likely be 60 mins each way on the motorway. Have done a mix of 1A/B jobs.

Just make sure that you have a backup option if you are unsafe to drive - i.e. after a nightshift. The hospitals I've worked at have had on-call rooms that you can request if you can't drive home, or there is a bus I can use (albeit takes twice as long as driving).

One of my colleagues works 80 miles away from where his girlfriend is (both FY1s), and so lives in hospital accommodation between shifts and goes back to where she lives on weekends/leave. Would that be an option if you really don't like the idea of commuting each day?

Reply 3

LouGreen

Original post by Elles

Hey ! im encouraged that u think 40 -60 mins is "standard" and that you managed this so far. As you mentioned a noticeable difference is that you are travelling by tube . Perhaps it does make that extra difference and you don't concentrate as much ?In term of compromise 35 mins for both of us each way is the best . Another option would be for us to live closer to hospital but that means a longer commute for my partner (about 1hour each way).

Thanks for the tip about hospital accom. I have emailed them to ask as the website didn't give much away. Long term , Its difficult to determine, as its all based on where there are openings and i might do fy3 abroad

Reply 4

LouGreen

Original post by Becca-Sarah

Hey! From your response it sounds like you were undaunted by the commute! May I ask ,do you anticipate your fy3 to be easier /less workload so are willing to have a longer commute?

Again please forgive me for asking stupid questions but are most FY1 jobs either unbanded , 1a/b ? If so how many nights am i looking to do with what hours? In terms of backup Im waiting to hear if there are any on call rooms available. But Id like to avoid living at the hospital as Im keen to live in my own home after years of renting lol- so maybe its madness but an hour commute would be more appealing

Reply 5

Becca-Sarah

Original post by LouGreen

Nope, it's a 1A banded surgical job that's equiv to CT1. I'm expecting it to be lots of long shifts and antisocial hours. It's a really good job for me though, and I'm in a similar position to you in being unable (or unkeen) to move due to partner's work, so it's worth it.

I think most FY's have at least one unbanded job in the two years, because of the community requirement. Nights/hours depend very much on the individual job - it varies by hospital, by department, and with the new limits coming in on the new contract it'll change again. Most nightshifts are 12 - 13 hours, current maximum is 7 consecutive, looking to be reduced to 5 (I think?) - I've done anything from 3 to 7 in a row, with maybe two blocks of nights in each four month rotation.

Reply 6

MMS2015

Original post by LouGreen

Living in/ near my workplace is not possible as im having to move to an area that will be half way for me and my partner and thats the best I could do in terms of location :s-smilie:

Not a current student but trying to choose my firm based on my rough estimations of travel time each year until I become a consultant (I have a family and this will be a permanent move). What I would say is don't rely on googlemaps-35 miles in 35 minutes is almost impossible anywhere in the northwest so try driving it at the times you are most likely to travel, and get your partner to do the same-ny husband once moved jobs to get into the same county we lived in and the commute was worse despite the distance being halved! Good luck.

Reply 7

nexttime

I commuted minimum 75 mins (am) and 90 mins (pm) all of last year. It was tough (though the time commitments were rather secondary to the physical requirements - most of that commute was running in divided runs totalling 22k per day!). When I had runs of 13 hour on calls I did have to pay for hospital accommodation, and there were two occasions where I couldn't get Sunday morning transport so had to sleep in the mess overnight. That was rough.

I would definitely echo the above - there were many occasions where I was totally exhausted and no way would I have been safe to drive. The run/train combination was fine though, and had the advantage that the train time allowed me to do other things like respond to e-mails, do e-learning etc that I didn't have time for in hours. Driving a car is such an unproductive time-sink in comparison.

Overall I coped with it fine... but I would sacrifice a lot to not have to do it again! Especially a driven commute. Its just so many hours of your life down the drain. Plus even without night shifts or long days I'm pretty sure I would kill myself at some point.

Reply 8

Becca-Sarah

Original post by nexttime

Driving a car is such an unproductive time-sink in comparison.
.

This is what podcasts were invented for.

Or at least, that's what I always say I'll do whilst commuting. Instead I do a lot of car karaoke.

I tried doing emails once, whilst effectively parked in a queue, and the passing policeman didn't think it was such a good use of my time.

Reply 9

*Liana*

My other half did around 45 mins driving each way for a year including A+E and ITU jobs - he personally did not like it much though and as mentioned above there is a safety aspect to consider. That said, driving commutes seem to be inevitable in some of the larger deaneries if you don't want/can't move house every year, and where I have worked i have met plenty of people doing around 45 mins each way even when doing night shifts/long days, so it is not unusual. I'm currently doing over an hour each way by car but in an unbanded post so it's manageable, but takes a lot out of my week as on top of work hours I have an extra 10 hours per week spent driving when I can't exercise/do hobbies/revise for exams etc. Unfortunately in my deanery the public transport is not ideal and none of the hospitals seem to be near the train stations so commuting by train is a much less popular option.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 10

theepw

My daily commute is just under 1 hour door-to-door. It's not ideal, but you do get used it. I get a bus in to work (which is also not ideal), but aiming to learn to drive by end of F2!

Reply 11

belis

Where about in North West? Manchester itself has a good public transport and trams can be an alternative to driving if you have a stop near by (they have their own tracks and don't get stuck up in traffic, which can be a real pain in Central Manchester). I currently live 30 miles away from my job and it takes about20 minutes as there is no traffic. In Manchester a 10 mile journey would sometimes take an hour at peak times.