Christopher Dorman
GP Partner, Undergrad and Post grad medical education
There’s not a day that goes by that I haven’t learned something new, clinical and non-clinical, and I love that variability in the job.
Christopher
I am currently a partner 3 days per week at a practice in Belfast. I started off as a locum in the practice, became a long-term locum then salaried and finally offered partnership.
I came into medicine at university knowing I wanted to be a GP. When I was younger I went with my grandparents when they visited their GP and saw how they had built a long-term relationship and felt that was what I wanted to try to do. Despite flirtations with other specialties through university I chose a foundation programme job that included a GP placement and from then I was decided that this was the career for me. I went into training straight from F2, and after finding a permanent job completed the trainer’s course to become a GP trainer. I’ve ended up working as a GP in the surgery I used to visit with my grandparents and for me, that role as a figure in the local community, still is one of the most fulfilling aspects of work as GP.
The best thing about a career in general practice is that you can make it whatever you want to be. The concepts of portfolio career, part-time working, development of leadership and education roles are so embedded now into the psyche of general practice that all doors really are open. I have always wanted to try to blend GP work with medical education and I find mixing clinical with non-clinical work really works as a balance. I started examining at OSCEs at QUB, but within a few years of trying new things had taken on clinical skills teaching, clinical tutor in the GP practice, CCTV teaching and then postgraduate work as a GP trainer. It wasn’t really planned like that but I just found the more I got into education the more I wanted to try new things. I know it’s an overused cliché but medical students really are great fun! Nothing I’ve tried in education has ever felt like hard work because students are usually so enthusiastic and grateful to be taught that it brightens up the day. In my ‘normal’ GP job, I still am amazed how patients can surprise you and the things you never knew you never knew! I had planned to write a book full of funny medical stories but Adam Kay has sewn up the market there! With that door closed I’m hoping to keep developing in medical education. I’m working toward the diploma in clinical education at the moment and with the new C25 curriculum at QUB and 3rd year students starting to get GP exposure it’s exciting to see how that develops.
It is so important to say yes to new opportunities. It’s easy to either have no plan or to plan too much, but sometimes unexpected things will crop up and they can be the most interesting. Over the last few years I’ve given talks to upcoming locums about finances, tried the role of clinical facilitator on a project for final years at QUB set up over Covid and taken a seat on the board of directors for my local GP Federation. None of them were planned but because GP is so diverse, the GP political landscape is shifting and leadership, mentoring, education and QI are rapidly expanding there are so many opportunities developing. Often the surprise challenges are the most rewarding so be willing to try something totally new.