STEM Untapped

Dr Louise Martin - GP

October 04, 2022 STEM Untapped Episode 8
STEM Untapped
Dr Louise Martin - GP
Show Notes Transcript

In this podcast the students are going to introduce you to Dr Louise Martin. Louise is a GP who treats patients at a GP surgery in London.

Louise recommends...
The British Medical Journal website
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (ISBN: 9781784701994)
This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay (ISBN: 9781509858637)

STEM Untapped also recommend...
Twas the Nightshift before Christmas by Adam Kay (ISBN: 9781529038620)

If you know of a group of students who would like to interview female or non-binary role models, please get in touch by emailing podcast@untappedinnovation.com

Likewise, if you know anyone who would be a great role model, please let us know by emailing podcast@untappedinnovation.com

If you know a group of students who would like to interview one of our role models, please get in touch by emailing podcast@untappedinnovation.com

Likewise, if you know anyone who would be a great role model, let us know by emailing podcast@untappedinnovation.com

Follow us on Instagram @STEMUntapped
Connect with us on LinkedIn @STEMUntappedCIC
Check out our website

Intro 00:00

Hello, and welcome to the Stem Untapped Podcast series. We're delighted that you could join us. Research from Microsoft reveals that having a role model was one of the most effective ways to prevent girls falling out of love with STEM subjects. As all partners at Untapped are female scientists, and many of our clients and associates are female scientists, we felt that we had a unique opportunity to map students with a variety of role models of their choice. This way, students can ask the questions that are most important to them, allowing them to gain access into a diverse array of different STEM careers. In this podcast, the students are going to introduce you to Dr. Louise Martin, who's a GP. Louise treats patients every day at a GP surgery in London.

 

Student Interviewers 00:49

I'm hoping to study medicine in the future. So this felt like a good opportunity to chat to you. I'm also hoping to study medicine. So this feels like a good time to learn some things.

 

Dr Louise Martin 00:58

I am a GP, I went to university after school and graduated when I was 23. So I've now been working the last 12 years. And I did the foundation training years. And then I moved to Australia for three years. And then I came back into GP training. And I've been working as GP for the last four years now. 

 

Student Interviewers 01:24

What made you want to be a doctor and what made you realise this was the career you wanted to do?

 

Dr Louise Martin 01:29

I always wanted to be a vet, when I was younger, but then I thought I'd be really upset if I saw dogs or rabbits unwell. So decided didn't want to do that. And I thought I might want to be a physio. And I wanted to run out onto sports pitches and be that physio. I worked as a physiotherapy assistant while I was in sixth form. So I worked on the weekends in the local hospital. And then I realised that most physios don't do that most physios work in a hospital, and it's very few physios that run on football pitches. I then also realised that I enjoyed doing that, but I wanted to be the person making the decisions about what was happening. And getting the kind of information from patients and making the diagnosis and then making the plan. So then that's what made me realise that actually I wanted to be a doctor, because I wanted to be the person that that made the decisions about what treatment people had and told the kind of the, or advised that the rest of the team as to how to help the patient with their recovery and things like that. I always knew I wanted to do something with people and something with… I'd already obviously picked my A Level subjects and I was doing sciences and Maths. But I think I didn't really know that I wanted to do medicine until I was about 17.

 

Student Interviewers 02:43

Do you regret your decision? And do you think it was worth it?

 

Dr Louise Martin 02:46

I definitely don't regret my decision. I think you'll probably hear loads of different, you know, you'll speak to people some days, and they'll absolutely regret the decision. But overall, I think very few people do. And there's a lot of stuff in the media about medicine and doctors and things like that. But the media report what the media report like it's very different doing it. Yeah, I definitely think it's worth it, It’s really, it's a long training course. But as soon as you I mean, university is very enjoyable. You meet friends for life. And it, you know, we had tough compared to what other people were doing. We had lectures all day, every day, some people only had lectures once or twice a week, but you got to know your friends really well. And you're all, it’s all very supportive. And then you go into hospital, we went in third year, but we were doing little bits in first and second year. And you learn very quickly, you learn a lot, but you learn it very quickly. And it's interesting things. Very practical. It's diverse. So I think it's definitely worth it is it feels like a long stretch ahead. But it does go really quickly.

 

Student Interviewers 03:55

Were you able to have a social life trying to balance GP training and medical school? Were you able to have fun?

 

Dr Louise Martin 04:00

Absolutely, definitely in first year. I mean, I paid for it in lack of sleep. But I think we went out every single night and then went to lectures in the morning. Medics are notoriously social. And there was, we had sports teams, and they had nights out every week, we had balls and loads of always the pub crawls around lots of social events around so because everybody knows that it's a hard course and it's time consuming. And you're you have to you do have to study hard, but there's also a lot of time for kind of downtime and socialising. Same with GP training. We had weekends away and lots of social events that were built into part of our training. So I think everybody's very aware that that's important.

 

Student Interviewers 04:45

Would you say GP training was less expensive than medical school?

 

Dr Louise Martin 04:48

GP training you do as a postgraduate so you have to be a doctor to it so you're working. Medical school, you have your kind of studying and then you have your exam so you and you get given time to revise and things like that. Whereas during GP training, you're working full time, that you're also having to revise for exams. I mean, that's more intense in a way, but you're also getting paid. So it's, it's different.

 

Student Interviewers 05:10

Is your salary worth all the years spent at medical school?

 

Dr Louise Martin 05:14

That's a very controversial question. I mean, I would say that every doctor will probably say no, because of the responsibility that we, we have. I mean, it's hard like you do get paid well. But I think when I see friends that work in banks and other jobs that are getting paid extortionate amounts of money and think about the responsibility that we have of actually, people's lives, I don't think we get…and the amount of work that we do, I don't think… but then I also think a lot of people don't get paid enough. So but yes, it is a well, it is a well paid job,

 

Student Interviewers 05:46

As a medical professional, what opportunities are there to make more money, and does the NHS pay better than private organisations?

 

Dr Louise Martin 05:54

So private organisations, hands down, pay loads better than NHS organisations. But there's other perks of working in the NHS. Working privately as a good way to earn more money. With the NHS, there are lots of guidelines, which you should sort of prescribe by or you're advised to… so they're kind of national guidelines, whereas privately there's less well, there should be the same regulation. But people because they're paying, they want extra things. So there's lots of a little bit more controversial private medicine, there's loads of things that you can do, I've got friends that do loads of different things, some people work for, they’re a prison doctor, some people work for sports teams, as the doctor, I do Botox as a hobby in my spare time. I have a friend who is a doctor for the Royal Ballet. So there's loads and loads of different opportunities. And also, what is great is that you can travel with it. So I went and worked in Australia for three years. I didn't need to do any extra qualifications or anything like that. I mean, that was incredibly well paid. That was double what we get paid here because it was miles away. And you can also pick up extra shifts and locum shifts. And so some people work as a locum. So they don't have a permanent job. They only pick up higher paid shifts.

 

Student Interviewers 07:16

In terms of medical applications, what do you think made you stand out? Or what do you think aided your acceptance into medical school?

 

Dr Louise Martin 07:22

So the things that they talked to me about interviews, which I think are the things that made me stand out, I did some. So as I said, I worked in a hospital. So I worked as a physiotherapy assistant, on my weekends, as my weekend job. I did some volunteering work, I did volunteering work with St Johns Ambulance. And I also volunteered looking after an autistic boy a couple of times a week. They just wanted to really see that I was interested in medicine, how I knew I was interested in medicine, like, you know, it wasn't something that I just read about and thought I'll do that I'd actually done some things that had confirmed our interest. They also were really interested in how I dealt with stress and what I did in my spare time. Knowing that, you know, it can be very stressful and making sure you have something that you do as an outlet for that stress. So just like you know, things like playing sport or enjoying running or reading or something like they just were interested in knowing that you again, it's not all about medicine, that you have other interests as well. They also asked me what relevant, what had recently been in the news, or what had interested me in the news that was about medicine. And everybody talked about that was being questioned coming up. So I'd read the paper the day before and I think talked about that. But I think what they really want to do is to know that you are interested in medicine, it's not somebody else telling you, you should do medicine. It's something that you want to do. And they just want to see that you're interested in it.

 

Student Interviewers 08:49

You said you did volunteering for St. Johns Ambulance, how did you get that opportunity? And what were you asked to do as a volunteer?

 

Dr Louise Martin 08:56

So in terms of getting into it, I think I probably just contacted them and said, You know, I'm interested in doing medicine. Can I do some volunteer work? I think I had to do a first aid course. And then in terms of the things I actually did, I went to the London Marathon one day and stood and held a pot the Vaseline for people to use if they want to do so. I mean, I know I didn't do anything too dramatic, but it was it was useful experience and really useful to the first aid course. And I think as well I did a first aid course because I was doing some babysitting. And a kid that I babysat for had a nut allergy or so, but and they're quite easy to arrange. And then I think beyond that you can then volunteer with… but they're always looking for volunteers. So definitely get in contact with them and see and they'll tell you if they need anything in particular.

 

Student Interviewers 09:46

Do you think that being a woman has made it harder for you to become being a doctor? And have you faced any bias in the workplace?

 

Dr Louise Martin 09:53

I think if I was doing medicine 10 years before I did, yes, but I mean, there were more girls in my year than there were boys, and there are more… I've come across more female doctors than male. When I was first starting out, there was quite the older consultants who are probably in their 60s or 70s. They were quite oh, gosh, look at all these female doctors coming through, you know, times are changing things like that. But now, I'd say that females are the majority of the workforce. And I don't think it's been any harder for me, being girl at work, but I definitely think that has changed recently for the positive.

 

Student Interviewers 10:37

Has there ever been a situation where your patient situation makes you feel overwhelmed or sad? And do your emotions ever affect your judgement?

 

Dr Louise Martin 10:44

I mean, I did have something strange not too long ago, a patient of ours at the surgery, it's a sadly died. He was very unwell. And he was at home for his last couple of days. And I had to go round to confirm that he had died. And he was at home with his son. They didn't have enough money for electricity bills, so that there was no lights on or anything. And this was dark, sort of after half six in the evening, in the winter, so it was dark. So the house was completely pitch black and cold. So the only light was from this son’s cigarette, and then I had to use my phone torch, which is all a bit of a surreal situation. But yeah, that was that was quite strange. I mean, I could tell you loads and loads of stories.

 

Student Interviewers 11:33

Do you think you'd still want to be a medical student again, if you were in our position with the current fees?

 

Dr Louise Martin 11:39

I mean, I think it's really unfair, really hard. My sister did medicine when the fees were £9000 a year. And she has a huge student loan. But I mean, what happens when you pay your student loan back is you pay, it comes automatically out of your salary. So you pay a small amount every month, and you don't, you don't really notice it, because you never get it. It's something that just gets taken out before you get paid. So you don't really notice this coming out. If you look at the number it is, I mean, it’s totally extortionate. But actually, as I said, it is a well paid job, and it is something that you will end up paying off and probably never really noticing you're paying off. They'll never ask you to pay a lump sum or anything like that. Like it's a small amount each month. So yes, I would still do it.

 

Student Interviewers 12:26

When you were at medical school, did your parents help the fees? Or did you have to get the loans?

 

Dr Louise Martin 12:32

I got a tuition loan and a Maintenance Loan. So I got the all the loans that I could. I also worked, so I would work in the holidays and save up money for the term times. So I worked as a healthcare assistant in my university holidays. So I was working in the hospital, learning things that were helpful. I worked on a bank, which is basically like a bank of staff, which they call on to say who can work this day? And again, you pick and choose when you work. So I would come home for the holidays and work a couple of days, and save some money for the next term. My parents helped out occasionally when I had run out of money, having gone out too much. But they were very clear that they weren't going to do that all the time. So I had to budget better.

 

Student Interviewers 13:16

How did COVID affect your work schedule?

 

Dr Louise Martin 13:19

COVID significantly affected your work schedule, because every patient we saw was in the surgery. And then suddenly, we had to not see anybody. And everything was over the phone, which felt very different and very unsafe, because it was never, something that we'd never done before. But I think in a way, the NHS is a huge organisation and a lot of things take a lot of time to change. But suddenly everything has changed overnight. And I think a lot of things have changed for a positive. Because particularly with GP appointments, not everything needed to be seen face to face, people were having to take half days off work to come to the GP surgery to ask for a sick note. So now people can be a lot more flexible with appointments. And things can be dealt with over the phone as they need to be or can be started off over the phone and then brought in. So I think everything's working a lot more efficiently. But yes, it was a significant change and dramatically increased our workload, which I mean hasn't gone away. So still dramatically increased our workload.

 

Student Interviewers 14:24

Do you have fixed hours? Or do you get called in at any time?

 

Dr Louise Martin 14:27

So I work four days a week, so I don't work Mondays. And then I work generally about kind of eight till six ish on Tuesday to Friday. I have an afternoon each week where I have admin time so I can do what I like with that time. I just have to make sure my admin has done so if I do that at home one evening, or if I do that, stay later one day and do it. I can leave the surgery at lunchtime. So, and I work a lot for a DP. Quite a lot of my friends were three days a week, and then they might pick up an extra session one evening or a weekend. So yeah, there's a huge amount of flexibility to be able to have spare time to do, to have other interests. And in the same way that some people will work 10 sessions, but that's, you know, that ends up being about 50 hours a week. And I mean, I would, not many people do that. Because I think what GP gives you is that, and actually a lot of consultant jobs do the same, gives you the flexibility to have time away to have other interests and not burn out.

 

Student Interviewers 15:29

in terms of us and our applications, what do you think we should be doing or consuming to get more insight into what it's like to be a doctor?

 

Dr Louise Martin 15:37

I mean, there's quite a lot of podcasts that you could start to listen to. I would read things like This Is Going To Hurt and watch that TV show. And just things like, I mean, it's not obviously total reality, but it gives you an idea of the things. I mean, I don't think I particularly read or watched anything special, but just kind of having an idea about what goes on in a hospital is good. The difficulty is, is a lot of the TV shows aren't really real life, for sure. A lot, there are some books. So When Breath Becomes Air is a very good book, I’m trying to think there's some other books that have been written recently by doctors that tell kind of more life like situations. You could also have a look at the British Medical Journal, there might be some kind of taster articles, things like that. But I wouldn't, I would just, you know, develop an interest and do things around that that interests you.

 

Student Interviewers 16:38

Is seeing wounds and blood, something you have to get used to, or do your have to already have a tolerance?

 

Dr Louise Martin 16:44

It's definitely something you get used to. It's also not something that you have to do with everyday medicine, there are so many different branches of medicine that you can go into, I mean, some of you never see a patient. So you don't have to be comfortable dealing with open wounds and things like that. And I think it's a rite of passage for every medical student to faint at some point. So and there's also loads of stuff that even now I don't want to deal with.

 

Student Interviewers 17:09

Is there any other career you thought of pursuing apart from becoming a doctor?

 

Dr Louise Martin 17:13

I mean, I thought of doing something with maths because I really liked maths, but I realised what I wanted to do was to work with people. And I know it sounds super cliche, but I wanted to make a difference to people's lives. And you really, really do. And it's such a rewarding job. And, you know, like, it's so nice. When people, they really appreciate what you do. And you really help people's families and people at their most vulnerable times. And it's a real privilege.

 

Student Interviewers 17:44

Have you made any friends that are your patients? 

 

Dr Louise Martin 17:47

No there's a lot of boundaries about being friends with patients. But I mean, I have patients who will always write me Christmas cards and buy me Christmas presents and things like that, which is very nice. But I mean, there's no one I'd see socially or speak to you outside of a work context.

 

Student Interviewers 18:02

Do people ever ask you to look at their injuries when they find out you’re a doctor. Do they say can you check this out for me or anything like that?

 

Dr Louise Martin 18:09

I mean, I have people, particularly now, people having children, like they're always asking me about things, but you know, they're very good. And I'll say things like, Yes, this is something you should go to your GP about, or no, this is not something you need. So you know, people will still go down the right routes, but essentially, I'll say first whether. And then the same way, you can just say, I'm really sorry, like, I've had a really busy day at work, but it's often quite nice things and also, like it's, you know, again, you just feel like you're making a difference people and helping people and that's nice. But yeah, everyone always asked me to look at a rash or a mole or something like that.

 

Student Interviewers 18:47

Would you recommend medicine to someone who say doesn't like studying science or wants to be a doctor? Like I want to be a doctor but I don’t like the process to get there.

 

Dr Louise Martin 18:54

Yeah, because actually, I mean, so I did what Biology, Chemistry and Maths for A Levels. Now I don't think I can't even remember what I learned for A Levels. I don't think any of the stuff that I learned then was helpful. You basically learn everything when you get there. And yes, there are some science stuff, but you kind of… Yeah, I mean, I think medicine is very different to the science we learn at school. So yeah, I think even if you if you're not enjoying what you're doing at the moment, I think it's very different. And it's a lot it's so relevant to kind of real life and your own body and things like that. Like it everything just it's much more kind of relevant than learning about atoms and things like that.

 

Outro 19:39

Thank you for joining another STEM Untapped podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, then subscribe for free on your podcast app. You can follow us on Instagram @stemuntapped. if you know of a school or group of students who would like to interview female role models to get in touch. Likewise, if you know of anyone who would be a great female or non-binary STEM role model please let us know. More details are all documented in the show notes.