I’m a physician associate in the UK. I love helping people and making a difference. It’s great when my actions make someone’s life better, be that patient or colleagues. The team I work with are really good people. I love medicine: it’s problem solving, the interpersonal aspects, the continuous learning, the kindness and dedication of the people I work with.

I hate basically everything else. The PA role has had loads of bad press recently and there’s a legal case ongoing about the national review that was done so there’s huge amounts of uncertainty as to what the role will look like in future if it keeps existing at all. So no idea if I’m going to get to keep doing what I love long term. The NHS is basically on its knees after a generation of underfunding and poor management at the highest levels, what with the previous conservative basically trying to sell it off for profit so we don’t have enough resources to do things properly.
The system is set up to basically abuse its staff, the culture in the NHS is one of going above and beyond and putting yourself out to help others. Which is how the whole thing is still running to be honest, but that means that it’s really easy/ expected to stay late or to pick up too much work. If someone retires or leaves it’s even odds that they get replaced these days so there’s more work for less people.