juniors - hours of work & the European Working Time Directive

[gene]

"Almost half (48%) of the UK's 39,000 junior doctors are working more than 56 hours a week, or without adequate rest, according to latest Department of Health figures. Monitoring of the New Deal, which sets the limits on working hours, also shows that doctors in their pre-registration year (PRHOs) are hardest hit. Over 60% of these posts are failing to comply with the maximum agreed standards.
The worst reported rate of non-compliance in England is in the South West where two in three junior doctors are working too many hours. This figure rises to 86% for the junior house officers. All junior house officers in Northern Ireland are working illegal hours." - BMA report

brrr! I want to apply for PRHO...
Would it be a better idea to undertake the internship in my own country? I'm interested in PRHO because I need to know how things are working over there before entering the PLAB

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[The Pill Counter]

still seems better than what the residents in the US and Canada do. I'm starting to debate whether to settle in the US or UK, hmmm... still have a few years to decide....

 

[gene]

listen, a graduate from my country told me that she took the PLAB without the internship year undertaken, and then she got a PRHO job! is it possible, to enter the PLAB without this intern year?

 

[The Pill Counter]

From the GMC website, "Candidates should also have 12 months' postgraduate clinical experience from teaching hospitals and other hospitals approved by the medical registration authorities in the appropriate country. It is possible to take the test without this experience but only for subsequent employment as a house officer (the grade occupied by new medical graduates) rather than as senior house officer."
- so there you go, it is possible.

 

[The Pill Counter]

Oh by the way, The British Government got an exception on the working time directive for house officers till 2010 I think, so they're not bound by the rules yet.

 

[pod2be]

At least the British actually have a law on the books about work hours. We here in the states still have little protection from the superhuman hours that are demanded of us. Residents here in tougher specialties (surgical mostly) routinely work 100 hour weeks, frequently 7 days a week.

 

[The Pill Counter]

Don't think to kindly of the British, pod2be, it's a European directive, and the British government has been fighting it tooth and nail, and even after losing, they're dragging their heals in its full implementation. Here in Aus, the resident life is not bad at all - 40-50 hours/wk, but would you be prepared to spend 10+ years as a resident before becoming a consultant, as they do here, or get it over with in half the time?