How much/often do you move around the country as a doctor?

This may be the wrong place to ask as this question is aimed more at people who have already graduated from Medicine, but does anyone know how regularly/far you are expected to move during foundation and beyond?

Important context = I want to keep the moving to a minimum. I'm a potential graduate applicant (still not decided on Medicine), and I'm hoping to settle down in the next few years, and don't really want to have be repeatedly moving house every 12-18 months (if I understood that correctly)

I really need to do some more research on this myself, but I thought it would be quickest to ask. Would it theoretically be possible to stay in the same city after you graduate as a doctor? Or at least in the same region of the UK?

Reply 1

the mumivator

My daughter has spoken to doctors and my husbands best mate is an ortho surgeon so we do have a bit of an understanding on moving around. Having said that, it does seem tricky for doctors to lay down roots early in their career. How do you cope with that? It's particularly interesting what you say about non competitive specialities in non competitive regions. You mention Yorkshire and GP but do you have any other examples? I do wonder how hard it must be for young doctors to feel settled, that doesn't seem to come until much later in your career? Simple things like potentially getting on the property ladder when you have no clue where you'll end up?

Reply 2

Kiwi789

Thank you for your answer, this has helped me make my decision :smile:

I definitely want independence when it comes to choosing where I work and live, so I think for that reason (and a number of others, such as long working hours, including nightshifts, and not being the best at handling stress) medicine is probably not for me. Dentistry looks much more appealing now, which also better fits with my current studies (jaws and teeth, albeit currently lizard ones XD)