In 2022, after five years of training and further five years on the wards, I resigned from my job as a junior doctor. Last year, the General Medical Council wrote to me to say they were taking my name off the medical register. It wasn’t exactly a huge shock, as I hadn’t practiced medicine for quite a while. But I found it a big deal on an emotional level to permanently close this chapter of my life.
When clearing out boxes of old paperwork, I noticed a training portfolio (档案袋)．All doctors are recommended to log their clinical experience in it. On looking through this portfolio for the first time in years, my reflective practice seemed to involve going up to my hospital on-call room and writing down anything remotely interesting that had happened that day.
Besides these, I was reminded of the long hours and the huge impact being a junior doctor had on my life. Reading back, it felt extreme and unreasonable in terms of what was expected of me, but at the time I’d just accepted it as part of the job.
Around the same time that I was reliving all this through my diaries, junior doctors in the here and now were coming under fire from politicians. I couldn’t help but feel doctors were struggling to get their side of the story across and it struck me that the public weren’t hearing the truth about what it actually means to be a doctor. Rather than shrugging my shoulders and ignoring the evidence, I decided I had to do something to redress the balance.
So here they are: the diaries I kept during my time in the hospital. What it’s like working on the front line, the consequences in my personal life, and how, one terrible day, it all became too much for me. (Sorry for revealing what is in my book beforehand.)
Along the way, I’ll help you out with the medical terms and provide a bit of context about what each job involved. Unlike being a junior doctor, I won’t just drop you in the deep end and expect you to know exactly what you’re doing.
【小题1】What does the writer think of his removal from the medical register?| A．It didn’t affect him at all. |
| B．It weighed heavily on his mind. |
| C．It came as a shocking news for him. |
| D．It opened a new chapter of life for him. |
| A．Satisfied but tired. | B．Ambitious but frustrated. |
| C．Bored and stressed. | D．Angry and uncomfortable. |
| A．Argue with politicians. | B．Tell the full story of doctors. |
| C．Collect more solid evidence. | D．Win the support of the public. |
| A．Reveal what it means to be a junior doctor. |
| B．Inform readers of some medical knowledge. |
| C．Give some background information on a book. |
| D．Encourage more people to practice medicine. |
