The tone of conversation is changing.
The content of the conversation is changing.
It’s slow, but it’s happening and it might just become inexorable.
When I spoke to the students in February there was a significant amount of them who quite obviously did not want to chase the big bucks, but wanted a life of satisfaction and fulfilment.
They understood that chasing the big bucks was a false economy.
There was a significant number though who still felt that that was the nature of the beast.
On speaking to referring dentists on a night out recently the guys that own practices were bemoaning the fact that they cannot get associates to do 8,000 UDA’s a year, full time.
Apparently young associates now don’t want to work 5 days a week bashing out UDA’s in a soulless position.
Who knew? No sh*t!
The conversations are changing, the young guys do not want to kill themselves for the promise of a pension 50 years away which it’s likely they will not get.
This is a moral dilemma that I wrestle almost every day in my work.
3 years ago, I gave up my commitment to the NHS as they tried to screw me down and down to providing a worse level of service for less money.
There is a significant amount of us who would contribute back into that if only we were given the circumstances to work in a way which gave us some sort of dignity.
I think that is the case for the younger guys coming through. I think most of them want to make a difference.
Perhaps it’s our responsibility going forwards now to try to facilitate that difference, to try to give them a profession that is worth fighting for and worth working for and an environment which allows them to make a difference to the patients that need a difference to them.
Blog post number: 1598
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