Many – including MyHSN – think the terms ‘junior doctor’ and ‘trainee doctor’ and ‘trainee’ should be abolished. ‘Junior’ doctors make up almost half of all doctors in the UK – of the over 125,000 doctors in NHS hospitals and the community in England, over 50,000 are junior doctors.
It is hoped that acknowledging doctors’ experience within their job title will be a cost-neutral way of boosting morale and giving them ‘the respect they deserve’. It would also help to ease public confusion around the terms, with many unaware that junior doctors are not students but fully qualified doctors undertaking training in their speciality of choice.
They may have been working for 12 years, but remain ‘juniors’ until they attain the rank of consultant.
Dr Andrew Stein, one of MyHSNs co-founders, and now a senior consultant, remembers being aggrieved when a consultant just a little older than him called him ‘one of the juniors’ when he was 38 years old, and had been a doctor for 16 years (the ‘training’ was longer in the past)!
One might wonder what all the fuss is about. But a barrister in their 5th year is not known as a ‘junior barrister’. Ok, one day they may take the silk and become a KC. But in a hospital, no other professions use the term. There are no junior radiographers, nurses or pharmacists. Abolishing the term for doctors would bring us in line with our colleagues.
Patients may feel unduly nervous to know that their epidural, or mastectomy or any number of procedures will be performed by a ‘junior’ doctor – but this is the reality of the NHS. Hard-working, highly skilled and experienced ‘juniors’ are the backbone of the NHS – and they will continue to be, regardless of the title they are given.
What name should be given to them? Many have been suggested but not taken off.
The phrase resident doctor has been suggested on 18th September 2024 by the BMA. Time will tell if it persists.
Other resources
Training as an NHS doctor
How much do junior doctors earn?
What is a medical student
Medical apprenticeships
What is a junior doctor
What is a registrar
What is a hospital consultant
What is a GP
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