Matt Morgan, 6 MayMorgan questions whether vocation in medicine is dead.1 In my experience as a junior doctor, the term “vocation” only seems to be used when arguing why doctors should accept their current working conditions despite General Medical Council surveys showing that they are threatening trainee health and wellbeing.2Perhaps medicine was viewed as a vocation by an older generation of doctors who largely came from privileged backgrounds, benefited from lower training costs, and worked gruelling shift patterns that rendered the possibility of achieving a work-life balance almost impossible.In recent years the costs associated with medical training have exponentially increased. University tuition fees; GMC registration; and fees for mandatory exams, courses, and portfolios required for career progression all add to the financial burden of junior doctors. With diversification of the profession, not everyone can easily absorb these costs upfront. When combined with increasing levels of burnout from trying to provide…
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