FY1 as a parent? (EKHUFT if possible)

Not a parent and not in Kent, but FY1 is a tough gig and the rota is likely to be tough in most specialties. Locally, even in the more chill specialties like psych and pathology, FY1s do weekends and night shifts on medicine so I wouldn't rely on those being a 9-5 job.
In my medical job as an F1, I was doing 1 long day a week, and I did an on-call block every 6 weeks where I switched between long days and nights with a day or two off in between for 3 weeks. In my surgical job, I had multiple late shifts that started at 1pm, in addition to weekends and nights. So I think you would really struggle to reliably do the school run and evening child care. I do have consultant colleagues with an au pair and it seems to work well for them, but most trainees (and consultant) with children go LTFT.

Hi all, 5th year medical student here, getting ready to submit my application soon for Foundation Programme. I’m mum to an 8-year old kiddo- her dad is a surgeon and works long/odd hours and unfortunately we have no family around, but I’ve made it this far through medical school doing most of the school runs, childcare in the evening, etc. Being employed as a doctor will be a whole other can of worms, and I know the expectations will increase as well as the hours. I’m not quite sure how we’re going to do childcare yet while we’re both working, but we’re trying to figure it out now.
I’m hoping (with pre-allocation) to be based in East Kent. If anyone is in the region, I’m wondering if you could shed some light on what the hours are really like as an FY1? I know it depends on the rotation (way more for surgery as far as long days/nights/on calls), but some other rotations I’ve been reading about say hours are 9-5 with no on call and no weekends (psych as an FY1, intensive care). Better yet, if anyone can share their experience as a parent, particularly as a mother, during FY1 or FY2 (with very little/no family help) I would be very interested to hear about it! Thanks in advance
PS. Things we have considered are boarding school, but where she is currently, we’ve been told she’s too young. I also considered LTFT to have at least one fixed day off, but ideally I would like to get the Foundation years done as quickly as possible. So I guess that leaves us with something like an au pair or a live-in nanny? Anyway, thoughts/experiences appreciated!

Yeah I had this experience ... it really depends on the job and trust because some trusts don't do nights
as an FY1 and FY2 I was doing nights, weekends (like 08:00 - 20:00), everything which my kids HATED.
It can make stuff hard ngl. but yeah some jobs you don't need to do any of that like when I was on my GP rotation ... it was dreamy

Ah, GP rotation in FY2 would be the dream. If only I get so lucky! But yes, I’ve heard that in East Kent FY1’s aren’t expected to do nights, so that would be really helpful if that’s true. I know I will have to do nights in FY2, but hopefully we will have the childcare situation figured out by then!

Hi all, 5th year medical student here, getting ready to submit my application soon for Foundation Programme. I’m mum to an 8-year old kiddo- her dad is a surgeon and works long/odd hours and unfortunately we have no family around, but I’ve made it this far through medical school doing most of the school runs, childcare in the evening, etc. Being employed as a doctor will be a whole other can of worms, and I know the expectations will increase as well as the hours. I’m not quite sure how we’re going to do childcare yet while we’re both working, but we’re trying to figure it out now.
I’m hoping (with pre-allocation) to be based in East Kent. If anyone is in the region, I’m wondering if you could shed some light on what the hours are really like as an FY1? I know it depends on the rotation (way more for surgery as far as long days/nights/on calls), but some other rotations I’ve been reading about say hours are 9-5 with no on call and no weekends (psych as an FY1, intensive care). Better yet, if anyone can share their experience as a parent, particularly as a mother, during FY1 or FY2 (with very little/no family help) I would be very interested to hear about it! Thanks in advance
PS. Things we have considered are boarding school, but where she is currently, we’ve been told she’s too young. I also considered LTFT to have at least one fixed day off, but ideally I would like to get the Foundation years done as quickly as possible. So I guess that leaves us with something like an au pair or a live-in nanny? Anyway, thoughts/experiences appreciated!

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