Job sharing as a preregistration house officer

Abstract

Feeling daunted at the thought of working in a demanding PRHO post? Eleanor Draeger and Daphne Hazell share their experiences of a job share and give some advice about how you can do the same. Their consultant, Adrian Steger, gives his views and encourages other consultants to consider the benefits of having two house officers instead of one Flexible training has come a long way and is no longer set up only for women with children. There are now some well recognised schemes for flexible trainees at senior house officer (SHO) and specialist registrar (SpR) level, but still not many opportunities for preregistration house officers (PRHOs). We have nearly got to the end of our preregistration year, which we have carried out entirely as a job share, and firmly believe that it is an excellent way to start junior doctor training. Throughout our time as house officers, our colleagues have been fascinated by the idea of part time training. A large proportion of them have expressed an interest in training flexibly at some point and wanted to know how to go about it. While at medical school, neither of us realised that we could job share as PRHOs. We were fortunate to have the help of our undergraduate dean in organising our jobs. We hope that this article will help others who may want to do the same. ### Flexible training as a PRHO Approximately 30 junior doctors have trained flexibly (part time) in the London deanery during the past five years. The procedure for setting up a flexible PRHO post is as follows: 1. Obtain approval from the relevant associate dean for flexible training that you are eligible--that is, have a good reason. Reasons include childcare requirements, personal illness, or caring for a sick relative which means that you cannot train full time. A small number …