To help fill this important gap, BMJ Careers has today launched a new web based service, the BMJ Careers advice zone (www.bmjcareers.com/advicezone).
The report, Informing Choices: the need for career advice in medical training, reveals the views and experiences of 1,740 doctors and medical students working in England, and makes disturbing reading. For example:
Over half (55%) felt dissatisfied with the career advice they had received
Two thirds agreed that there were many areas of medicine they knew too little about
16% said that lack of advice had led them to make decisions that they later regretted
The advice zone aims to fill this void by providing doctors and medical students with accessible, impartial careers advice, say Rhona Macdonald and Graham Easton of Career Focus.
It can be used to submit a career query to a panel of over 200 advisers, search the database of existing questions and advice, and share career experiences with other users. So whether it's choosing a career, what training to do, or how to deal with work related health problems or discrimination, the advice zone should be able to help.
"We hope that all the questions and answers we publish from both readers and advisers will grow into a first class database of careers advice," add the authors. "Judging by the findings of this report, such a service comes not a moment too soon."