Gateways guidance: 14.3 Career guidance

Career guidance is an important issue for every medical student and junior doctor, whether disabled or not. Anyone providing career guidance should be able to do so for all students. Officers should know to communicate with a range of disabled people using many formats and understand issues of exclusion and how to promote inclusion. The interviews undertaken for this advisory guidance revealed that tailored advice is lacking at every level and is greatly needed.

1. ‘There was no careers guidance and it was badly needed.’
2. Disabled trainee
3. ‘I have not had any specialist help. And with having specialist needs this would have been useful and would have saved me a lot of worry and uncertainty.’
4. Disabled trainee
5. ‘There has been virtually no support...I have sought careers guidance myself and again have found this very difficult to obtain. It has made my training a very difficult and disappointing time for me as I have been left feeling very isolated and unsupported. I tend to have had very little in terms of postgraduate options.’
6. Disabled trainee
7. ‘Trying to get careers advice from the deanery, faculty tutors and Colleges was hopeless. Consultants were fantastic but they do not know about specialties other than their own.’
8. Disabled trainee