It Takes Heart

30. Dr Chris G on Finding Freedom in the Chaos

• Hosts Samantha Miklos & Kate Coomber • Season 2 • Episode 30

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What happens when the path you’ve worked so hard for starts to wear you down? In this honest episode, UK-trained doctor and content creator. Dr Chris G, opens up about burnout, sabbaticals, and building a version of medicine that actually feels sustainable.

Dr Chris takes us from the intense pace of under-resourced NHS wards to new rhythms of practice in Australia, and the surprising clarity he found during two ten‑day silent meditation retreats. We talk rural placements, lifestyle shifts, and why success isn’t a title but something you can feel in your day-to-day. Along the way, Chris reflects on creating content as a form of expression, confronting the fear of being seen, and why visibility matters, especially for clinicians questioning the traditional path. 

If you’re feeling stuck, curious about locum life, or searching for more balance in your healthcare career, this episode offers a hopeful, practical look at what’s possible. 

More about Chris' Organisation of Choice, Against Malaria Foundation
Against Malaria Foundation help protect people from malaria. They fund anti-malaria nets, specifically long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs), and work with distribution partners to ensure they are used and their impact tracked and recorded.

Follow Chris on Instagram and Youtube.

It Takes Heart is hosted by cmr CEO Sam Miklos, alongside Head of Talent and Employer Branding, Kate Coomber. 

We Care; Music by Waveney Yasso 

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Follow @ittakesheartpodcast on Instagram, @cmr | Cornerstone Medical Recruitment on Linked In, @cornerstonemedicalrec on TikTok and @CornerstoneMedicalRecruitment on Facebook.

Sam:

From NHS burnout to locum life in Australia. This episode is about what it really means to take a break and rebuild life on your own terms.

Chris:

We need to appreciate that everyone's definition of success is personal. I once did a locum where I was working alongside a consultant who he said he had a very different definition of success, and he told me about his reverse week, which was that he worked two days and had five days off. So he'd work two days as an emergency consultant, and then five days he'd be hydrofoiling by the beach or whatever. And that was his definition of success.

Kate:

Don't forget to follow and subscribe so you never miss an episode. And follow us on Instagram, it takes heart for all the behind-the-scenes fun.

Instrumental:

We care for the land and sea.

Sam:

Today's guest is Dr. Chris G, a UK trained doctor, content creator, and YouTuber who took a sabbatical, picked up a camera, and started asking some big questions like what happens when the job you've worked your whole life for starts making you miserable? Chris's journey has resonated with thousands, not because it's perfect, but because it's honest. Welcome, Chris, to It Takes Heart.

Chris:

Thank you so much for having me. It's an honour. Thank you for having letting me share my story and all the other health professionals you let share their story as well.

Sam:

And are we calling you Dr. Chris G or Chris?

Chris:

Just Chris. Chris?

Sam:

All right, just in case, because I'm like you're a you're a sensation online. We don't want to get the branding wrong.

Chris:

Chris is absolutely fine.

Kate:

So we'd love to go back.

Chris:

Yeah.

Kate:

How what what made you become a doctor?

Chris:

So yeah, we touched on this earlier. So my both my parents are pharmacists. So hospital pharmacists as well. And it was always just in my head that, oh yeah, we're gonna I'm gonna do something healthcare related, something in the hospital. And then when I went got to sort of unit choosing my university degree, they were very much of the mindset you need to choose a degree which has a job at the end of it. So like medicine, law, engineering. So that already kind of like narrowed my thing. And I wasn't I didn't like hold it against them or anything for that. Um and then also at the same time I really liked scrubs as a 15, 16-year-old. TV showing that the team, not that you weren't walking around dressed in your scrubs. Yeah, I did also like scrubs. It was huge. Like that's a big part of pop culture. And I think at that age you're like so impressionable. Even like now, I th I feel like I'm a very impressionable person. Yes. Um so I just thought, well, I have to choose something with a job at the end of it. I have to go down one of these paths. Why not just do this? It seems fun. Doctors are funny, they have like fun relationships. So I had a very warped view of what medicine actually was. I don't actually know. Because I'm definitely I I definitely daydreamed a lot, like JD. So like just kind of like lost in my own head a lot. I'd probably say JD. Yeah. Yeah.

Sam:

And so you went when you got to medicine, you were like So you went into the NHS?

Chris:

Yeah, yeah. So five years of med school, then straight so that was straight off to high school, because you don't need to be um postgrad in the UK. And then That's very young. Yeah, like at 18, just like chucked in. And then yeah.

Sam:

So you can explain that though. Like you can be working in the NHS straight out of high school.

Chris:

Uh so no, so it's like straight out of high school you go to medical school. Right. So you didn't do an undergrad. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so at 18 But in my medical school we did also do like clinical placements very early. So I think even from second year we were on the wards as medical students. So like 19-year-olds and stuff. You're not technically working, but you're kind of helping out here and there and and of that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Sam:

And so what was it like? What's the NHS like? I mean you haven't been there for a couple of years, but compared to more than a couple, yeah. Yeah, like what was it like working in the NHS?

Chris:

Yeah. Yeah. It's so the the more distance, like more time-wise that passes between me working in it and now, the harder it is to actually remember. But all I can describe is like the feeling that I would have every single day waking up, which was I guess just anxiety, like low mood. And it's because I always felt out of my depth, I always felt like there wasn't enough support around me. Senior support or just yeah, I guess senior support, especially like out of hour shifts. Um you'd have you'd have people you could call, but there was kind of like a uh unwritten rule which is like only like really serious stuff. If those little awkward things what you're not sure about, you're like, oh should I call? Yeah.

Kate:

And when you're a couple of years out, like I imagine a lot of life experience counts when you're becoming a doctor and having seen X number of patients in the past and being able to say I've I've seen this before, whereas if you haven't, to make those decisions must feel really stressful.

Chris:

Exactly, yeah. And you've probably heard like the UK doctors have just like finished a another five-day strike. I think also when you compare your your life to your friends who are like they went to the same high school as you, for example, but they're they said they're working in the city in finance or and they're like their lives seem a lot better because they earn a lot more money. And I know it sounds bad, but that does help when you can pay your rent and do your groceries. Um so I'm very behind like the the doctor strikes because it I don't think they get paid enough for for what they do.

Sam:

And is that the main reason if someone's going, well, why are they striking? Is that the main reason? Is it for pay?

Chris:

I think pay helps, but to be honest, it's like the whole system is asking too much from them. Yeah. Um like their lives my my life was very difficult as a as a junior doctor. Just the the stress level, the working hours, not being able to have a life outside of medicine.

Kate:

And like the caseload when you're there.

Chris:

The caseload, yeah. So just for example, I remember so this was F2, so like second year out of medical school. We do like medical um on call and over the weekends our vowers was always terrible. But over the weekends, it was me, another F2, and a registrar and like a nurse practitioner covering 400 patients. And these weren't like people with like coughs and colds, these were sick medical inpatients, like a lot of them critically ill. And if your registrar is doing so your registrar's like just a bit senior than you, if he's busy doing recesses on multiple patients, like you're not gonna be able to ask him any questions or her any questions. You're gonna have to s do these things on your own. And uh you have obviously you have to prioritize the critical things, but then you have this like list of uh 50 other things that you need to do. You've got your bleep going off all day. And factor in like if you if you're doing that overnight, you're sleep deprived and uh it just it's not a good way to live. Like it just really takes its toll. And uh when you're given when you're given like a workload that's not humanly possible to do and you can't do it, you feel like you're not good enough as a person, you're not good enough as a doctor. And I think that has a lot of repercussions with your your mental health as well.

Sam:

So d you hit a point where you were like, enough. What was that point? What was there sounds like it was sort of building, building, was there one point?

Chris:

I'd say it would be more of a gradual thing. Even I guess throughout medical school, I wasn't 100% sure because I'd see like my more senior colleagues at the time they were just like first-year doctors. I'd see them and be like, oh, I'm not sure I actually want their life. They don't seem very happy.

Kate:

And that's a difficult place to be in itself if you're continuing your studies and you're pushing and putting everything into this and sacrificing a lot of social life and other things to do this thing that you want to do. Yeah.

Sam:

And then not look up to those really senior people that are doing it.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah. Like they always say you should see look at the person five years ahead of you on the same path. Do you want to do what they're doing? And a lot of the time it wasn't. Like when I was back in the NHS, I I didn't see anyone that actually genuinely inspired me. And it didn't excite me to like recreate their life in my own. Yeah.

Sam:

That's really sad, isn't it?

Chris:

Yeah, yeah.

Sam:

So one day you went enough.

Chris:

Yeah, so there's quite a natural break in the UK between so after your foundation years, so the first two years after medical school are called your foundation years. And most people will choose a training pathway at that point. But it's getting very common now that people will take a break after that. I think it's more common than pe that people take a break than don't, whether that's to travel or to like study something else or just do something completely different from it. Yeah. Like for for example, my sister, she she's also a doctor, um, but she just became a yoga instructor for like a year or two, even maybe. Yeah. And then started her training.

Kate:

So it's almost like you're not having the gas here when you leave high school. Yeah. It's like you sort of have it there.

Chris:

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Yeah. And I think people are realizing they really need it after those first couple years working in the NHS and being like really under the pump for for that long. Most most doctors feel like they need it and are recognising that they need it as well.

Sam:

And so then you took that that break.

Chris:

Yeah.

Sam:

Where did you go? How did you get from being burnt out to in Australia low-caming? Like what did that space look like?

Kate:

And was it a break like I'm not going back? Or was it a couple of them? Was it like to read? I've actually had multiple breaks now.

Chris:

I've had so that first break, so it was six months after foundation year two. And that was like, I think I'm done with medicine. I don't want to go back to the NHS. It was very like cliche, like my hair was like down to here. Yeah.

Kate:

And what year are we talking about?

Chris:

Uh this would be 2019. Right.

Kate:

So just before COVID. Yes, just before COVID.

Chris:

Yeah. So six months, long-haired Chris with a backpack, traveling Southeast Asia, finding himself. Very cliche. Very cliche. But it was like honestly the best thing that I ever did.

Sam:

Is this when you did like the 10 days meditating in silence?

Chris:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I've actually done that twice now.

Sam:

Yeah, oh wow, you've gone back for more.

Chris:

Yeah, I went back for normal.

Sam:

I don't know. Tell me about that experience, was it?

Chris:

Oh, it's uh probably one of the hardest things you can put yourself through.

Sam:

Because I think I heard that you were like it got hard. Like by day ten, you were like, I'm good, but Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris:

Like but it's also one of the most fascinating experiences you can have as well. Like being able to observe your own mind for that long. Like when have you ever been disconnected from society or anything for different things?

Sam:

I struggle to meditate. Ten days.

Chris:

Yeah, ten hours per day of meditation. So seated cross-legged on the floor and just focusing on your breath initially and then scanning your body. And you have like some guidance and stuff, and you get meal breaks like breakfast and lunch. But yeah, that's where were you? Uh first one was in Myanmar. That's actually where it originated from, the this particular Vipassana one that uh we do. And then the second one was with my fiance last year in Jakarta in Indonesia.

Sam:

So you did first six months, long hair, backpacking, Southeast Asia. Then what happened?

Chris:

And then I came back to the UK and I started locuming a bit in the UK, but it was I was just locuming in the hospital that I worked at for F2. So I wasn't really like travelling around or anything. It's just like, oh, they need a doctor, I'll just work that I already know the system, etc. And then I was like, I actually don't know what I'm doing with my life right now, because I don't know what specialty I want to do. Like, I guess I should pick one, or if I should just leave and do something else, but I can't because I've been studying for so long. I've got to throw it away. That's such a tough thing, isn't it?

Sam:

When you put all those years in, and then you've got in the back of your mind, I've got to come out with a job as well. Like I think we're also in that era where we all had to go and study something that you then had a job, and then to feel like, oh, I don't know if this is my thing.

Kate:

And I think as you get older you might look back and go, well, that was just a moment. But at the time, that's all you've had. So it feels like the biggest moment ever. Yes, exactly.

Chris:

Exactly. So yeah, and then I guess it was by chance I had one UK doctor friend who went to the same med school as me. He actually just got his citizenship on Monday. Just gone. Um but he had been here for about a year and he was like, dude, you have to come to Australia. It's the best thing ever.

Kate:

And you hadn't been out?

Chris:

I hadn't been. I'd come here for like a family holiday to Cairns, like when I was fifteen or something like that. And I was like, well, I've nothing else going on, so yeah, I'll give it a crack. And he got me a job at one of the emergencies in Brisbane. Um and I worked there for a year, and then I stayed there for another year to get my like GP prerequisites. And then obviously you're surrounded by a lot of other UK doctors who are doing a very similar thing, and they introduced me to like the whole locum stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

Kate:

Because actually I remember seeing when you um were sharing when you got you were looking to do GP, is that right? Yes, yeah. Yeah.

Chris:

Still am.

Kate:

Still that's still. But it's really challenging. And I thought that was really interesting when I saw that video. Yeah, not not realizing just how competitive is a very good idea.

Chris:

Yeah, it's getting a lot more competitive. Um so that first intake this year for 2026 start was like uh really oversubscribed and Southeast Queensland, rural Southeast Queensland, was the most popular region in the country. Um and obviously I that was my first choice. I didn't actually put any other preferences because I really did want to stay around here. Uh so I didn't get a place. But they have just uh opened up applications for like second intake just yesterday. So I'm reapplying. I've extended my um training preferences to like was it North Coast, New South Wales? Yep.

Sam:

So maybe we can like build your profile and then be like, if you let Chris in, we could do some great profiling on the program, you know, opportunities. Yeah, yeah. So have you locumed then all your time has been out here doing various locums?

Chris:

Um I have, yes, I worked two years full-time essentially Brisbane, and then I've just been doing locuming around New South Wales, uh, Queensland, Tasmania. Yeah.

Kate:

And what have you noticed? Like, what's the big biggest difference between working in Australia compared to the NHS? Yeah. Like are you enjoying medicine again?

Chris:

Yes, yeah, definitely. Like as as soon as I came over, even though I was working like a full-time schedule, I just felt a lot better in general. Like my my mood was better. I think part like a huge part is the weather. Like it's it sounds cliche again, but it's like if it's sunny every day, it's a lot easier to go to work than when like And not dark.

Kate:

And dark, yeah.

Chris:

Like Yeah, when you're not cold and miserable. Uh I think I definitely had like an element of um SAD, seasonal affected disorder for sure. So that helped. And then I just felt a lot more supported. Like I did a whole year of emergency um at the Martha Hospital in Brisbane. And there's just always a senior there. Like every single patient I saw, I can run it by someone.

Kate:

Um if you look at the ratios, if you think about that small team you had doing uh being responsible for that 400 patient load, how does that compare in a hospital like that?

Chris:

Yeah, yeah. So I kind of I guess one thing that I haven't experienced is being like, for example, on call. Um because I I somehow managed to like slip around that. So I actually probably wouldn't be able to compare it directly.

Speaker 01:

Yeah.

Chris:

Um the the style of job that I was doing was very different. So like in emergency, you're just seeing one patient after the other. Whereas when I was doing the on-calls in the UK, that's when we had that like high patient load. I've heard it can be quite bad here as well. So I'm not gonna do that.

Kate:

It depends obviously health service to health service and where you're located and you know all of those factors.

Sam:

Do you think um from the time that you've had in Australia so far, had you um studied medicine out here and gone in, you know, in those junior years, do you think you would have been equally as burnt out? It's a good question.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah. I don't think so. I don't think so. From I feel like interns are a lot more supported here, like they're a lot more protected just from speaking to people and just my experience. It's but it's really hard to tell, isn't it?

Sam:

Like when you look at the um, you know, the doctor's five years ahead of you now.

Chris:

Yeah.

Sam:

Are you inspired by what you see out in Australia? Yeah. Because of the lifestyle that's gonna be a household.

Chris:

So one of the things that actually got me to kind of commit to staying was I was working in the martyr as well with a consultant, emergency consultant, probably only like maybe four or five years older than me. He'd just qualified as consultant. And he this at this conversation actually made me want to stay in Australia. He basically said he was earning three times as much as his um consultant friends back home who were also working in an emergency. And in my head, I was like, well, if if that's the case, I could actually work a third of the amount and like be on the same wage as I would if I went back home, which would free up like two-thirds of my year.

Sam:

So imagine what you could do with you saying low-coming too can be like a reverse holiday. Like you can you can do all these other things.

Chris:

Exactly, yeah, yeah. I think coming here gave me more of my life back outside of medicine. Not that I I dislike medicine or any anything. I just like a lot of aspects of life and I don't like that.

Kate:

And being able to set boundaries for yourself to to ensure that you can have that balance.

Chris:

So there's a the going whereas in in the UK it was like you're a doctor and it felt like I wasn't anything else. I just kind of in medicine, I was burning out and like I wasn't doing it, all these other things I wanted to try, like content creation or tr training or anything like that.

Sam:

Yeah. So there's loads of great things about being out in Australia and and working in the system out here, but there's also you know all of our creepy crawlies and we've seen on your videos you've got Ron, the head of HR, the bird, there's m Dr. Hopkins, the kangaroo, cinematic universe. This is it. You've even had um The Gardener came in and did some ex-radies at one point.

Chris:

Like That was actually true, that's it. That was true.

Sam:

Right, so we've got to minute. Yeah. Um Let's keep it interesting. I remember when we lived in London and people would be like, God, out there there's bears and there's can you ride kangaroos to school.

Speaker 01:

Yeah.

Sam:

Something's gonna kill you. Yeah. All the creepy crawlies. Have you found any of those things confronting? And what are the wildest things you've seen on your travels out here?

Chris:

Like, I feel like those things are so exaggerated by the rest of the world. Like all these creepy crawlies. It's almost become like a meme in itself. Like Australia has like animals that will kill you and stuff. I'm sure there are, but I haven't actually seen even going to like these rural places, I've never felt like threatened by an animal. They're all very cute and approachable. Yeah. Like Dr. Hopkins and and Ron. Ron's a bit annoying. He's a curly, so yeah. HR. And noisy. Yeah, very noisy.

Sam:

Um tell us about the gardener doing the x-rays.

Chris:

Yeah, that blew my mind. So um basically when I this was actually very recently in rural Queensland. I won't say exactly where it was, but I in my first week I was working in one small hospital and I was told that the nurses were doing x-rays, which I was like, oh, that's really cool. So they just do an extra course, which allows them to um be an x-ray operator. Doctors can do it too, but there's like a weird loophole that doctors aren't allowed to do it and then they can't order the x-ray and then do it, which is very strange. So there's almost no point in the in the doctors learning. Yeah, referral process. Yeah, it has to be a referral, yeah. So the nurses were doing it, and I was like, wow, that's awesome. So I move and then I move to the next hospital in the next week. And I find out that the gardener is is doing the x-rays because he's done this same extra course.

Kate:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Finding balance.

Chris:

Like he he literally mows the lawns and he comes in and then he does the x-rays. Only in Australia, right? Only in Australia. Yeah, yeah.

Sam:

But did you see as well like the role of the nurse practitioner in Australia? Did you think is their scope of practice much broader than you're used to in the UK?

Chris:

Um Have I seen it? I haven't seen a huge amount of nurse practitioners actually. I but just no normal nurses, like a huge like especially rural, they've got like a huge scope of practice. I often joke like they're basically the consultants out there. Yeah. And in fact, I I because I was complaining, I went to at this last one, I wasn't supported, even though I picked up a locum, which was like I was promised to be working alongside an SMO. They didn't roster on an SMO. There was like some issues. Uh so I spent like three out of five days just like me running the emergency uh and the ward as a as a registrar. And I was complaining and made a few reels about it. But then the nurses told me that they didn't even have a doctor for six weeks. So they were running the ED. They were like doing all the doctory stuff as nurses.

Kate:

Yes, they can.

Chris:

And I was like, I'll stop complaining now. Yeah.

Kate:

And what are your friends back home? Back in the UK. What are they doing? What do they think about that? Like when they're watching all your videos.

Sam:

Yeah.

Chris:

To be honest, I haven't this is quite recent me sharing this like part of my life, this like rural medicine stuff. So um I'm yet to get much feedback from them. I'm going back in November. Okay. So uh I'll see. I'll ask them then.

Kate:

And I bet even I can only imagine the stress that they're under even looking to you going, how do you have time to do all this? You know? Like it's such a different life that you're living. Yeah. What do you think the other benefits of local rural work is?

Chris:

I think I prefer working like rural, I've realized. But it's just so much like like I've worked in busy EDs in the city and I worked in like kind of busy EDs in rural. But you just even a busy rural ED feels like way more manageable. It feel feels way more personal, like you're working in a smaller team, everyone's like kind of having a laugh and a bit more connected. Whereas in these big metro ones, you you you just become a number, you're just like a cog and you're just like churning through patients, you've got patients in the corridor. One of my last shifts that I did in the city, um, it was a couple months ago, and I've decided it it will be my last shift in the city because the whole day I just saw patients in the corridor. Like I didn't see a single patient in a cubicle. And I was like, this just reminds me of like ENHS. I much prefer just having that space. And and then you do you do get a bit of downtime and quiet time between patients sometimes, which is like really nice. I much prefer that kind of slower pace. And then occasionally you get something like a bit exciting or or or whatever. Yeah.

Sam:

Yeah. So content creation. Yeah. Where when did that start?

Chris:

Like So I mentioned earlier how I was I'm quite impressionable. And I kind of grew up on YouTube, like just watching YouTube as a kid. I think maybe like early teens or something like that. And I always wanted to be a YouTuber, but it was definitely like a bit of a dark secret I didn't tell anyone.

Kate:

And then my son shouts shouts that from the rooftops.

Sam:

Ask him what he wants to be a YouTuber. I think probably now, like many, many years back, like the modern movie was many, but now, yeah, they start as kidnapping.

Chris:

Um But the problem was I also became a doctor, and then going through med school, s working in the NHS, I just kind of buried that dream. Just kind of kept it locked away as I was burning out in medicine.

Sam:

Aaron Ross Powell Do you think also there was a little part of that because it was like, well, what's that as a job? Like if we think about your parents and not to not your parents, you know, disrespect, but it's like you know, trying to g have a job at the end of it, it seems just frivolous and silly.

Chris:

A bit of a waste of time. And that's so after those foundation years, I think I just finished my travelling at that time, my first six-month travels, came across a YouTuber, doctor YouTuber called Ali Abdal, if you've heard of him. Probably one of the biggest doctor YouTubers, well, he's an ex-doctor YouTuber now. And watching him just unapologetically make YouTube videos, I was like, ah, I could actually do this too. He's a doctor, I'm a doctor. We were very similar level, like he was doing his F2 as well. And it just gave me permission to start, something that I'd always wanted to do, but secretly I thought I was like, I'm not really sure if I can give that a go. Like it's not professional.

Sam:

Also comes back to that you can't be what you can't see.

Chris:

Yes, that's huge. I really like that um that quote as well.

Kate:

Like I really resonate with that. And interesting that you're working in medicine with zero inspiration of what you could be, but you've seen this other person on social and that's inspiring. Yeah, yeah. Like that's a problem, isn't it? That the the people in front of you.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was so cool just seeing his journey, like how he was he was still working full-time as a doctor at that point. He was um doing his YouTube channel, he was doing a podcast, he was building a business at the same time. I actually it it did also blow my mind how he was doing that. Just comparing my F2 years. I was like, I could have never done that. Like, I don't know how he physically.

Sam:

Have you ever found out how he did that?

Chris:

No, I would love to like speak to him one day. Um but yeah. Yeah, I think he's kind of gone off the stratosphere in terms of like how I like he's he's pretty famous now, I think, in terms of like content creation.

Kate:

Is there anything that you don't or won't share online?

Chris:

Uh I d I draw the line of like, I guess, people around me. So like family, f friends, partner. Like if they don't want to be in my videos, like that's 100% I completely agree. Like they shouldn't if they don't want to be in it. Um for me personally, no, I'm pretty open now.

Kate:

And I guess it was you mentioned there it was only recently that you're doing the locum life stuff. So it was a lot of like the travel and just say before then.

Chris:

Yeah, so when I was first inspired by Ali Abdel, I so when I it was also just as I came over to Australia. Um Because you were in lockdown. Did I see a video? You were in lockdown, yeah. So 2020, two weeks hotel quarantine, no windows open, no fresh air, just me and my iPhone 11 camera, and I was like, well, if I don't do it now, I'm literally never gonna do it. Because much time. Yeah. So I'll just like okay, I'll start making videos. At the time I was really into like calisthenics and fitness. I was like, I'll just start with the like fitness, because that's what I wanted to talk about. So I started making like a few of those videos. And yeah, just that's that's where it all came from. Just went from there. Just went from there.

Sam:

You said though that it's like been the biggest personal development journey.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah.

Sam:

Why?

Chris:

So it started off with like, yeah, me giving like health and fitness tips, and then with the travels, I was kind of continuing that, but then it got to a point where I realised people really weren't connecting with that. What they were connecting with was just me sharing my own story. So I kind of lent into that more and realized I actually enjoyed that more as well. And you never run out of ideas when you're just talking about your own life. There's infinite ideas. Uh whereas before the help for fitness stuff, you have to really like research what you're saying. You don't want to say the wrong things.

Kate:

Be an expert about something that you're not trained in or what are you.

Chris:

And I think I actually really didn't like I liked and still love making videos. Um, so it didn't really matter what the content topic was about. I just wanted to create. And in terms of so you asked about it being the biggest personal development journey. So if I were to go back five years and look at myself now and be like, I can't believe this is happening. Like even just being here, like sitting to YouTube, sharing my story. Because I most people would have considered me very like introverted, doesn't really share much about himself. Chris is like the mysterious one, we don't really know what's going on in here. Doing the content stuff just gave me a voice, like 'cause I felt comfortable just you're essentially on your own. As a content creator, you're just on your own in a room speaking to a camera. And it was almost like a journal, like I just also describe it as like therapy because I'm just venting to the camera often.

Kate:

Does that feel hugely uncomfortable though? I imagine when you started doing that, like it's a really scary thing to be vulnerable, particularly if you are a bit more introverted. You've gone from zero to a hundred, right? Like I'm introverted, I no one knows what I'm thinking, but here you go. Here are all my thoughts.

Chris:

It was yeah, it was hard at first. I guess at the start it was like I wasn't sharing myself because it was like health and fitness tips. Yeah. So that was fine. It was still really scary just doing that.

Kate:

I was gonna say that like did you have that fear of judgment?

Chris:

Yes, yeah, yeah.

Kate:

And particularly friends. I think sometimes when it's for strangers, you're like, who cares what they think? But what are my peers and my friends and my family gonna think about this?

Chris:

Yeah. So the hardest bit of content creation, it wasn't the tech, it wasn't the editing, it wasn't the thumbnails. It is the fear of being seen. And not by random internet strangers, but by people that you know in real life. What if my medical school friends see this? What if my consultant stumbles across my YouTube channel and brings up in the tea room? That was like my biggest fear. Not failing at YouTube and like not getting any views, but actually people seeing my stuff. Which is weird because you're putting yourself out there and you do want to be seen, you do want to get the views and stuff, but at the same time you don't want anyone to see it. It's quite strange. Um I think just with time of doing it over and over, I almost I don't even think about the people watching it in a way. Like it surprises me when people say, Oh, I've watched all your videos.

Sam:

You're like, really?

Chris:

Yeah, I'm like, oh, wow, okay, that's cool.

Sam:

You've got a lot of time when you're gonna be here. Yeah.

Chris:

Because from my perspective, it's just me talking to a camera and then I see some numbers on a screen. But actually I'm speaking to thousands, sometimes millions of people. Um and with time you just kind of get over it. If you do it enough, yes, my med school friends will see it. Everywhere I locum now, people will be like, I recognize you from thingy. And yes, I feel a bit uncomfortable, but I think just with time you get over it.

Sam:

But also that um those videos you shared too, again, similar to the point of this podcast, it's still it's also shining a light on the work and the experiences and just have the human element of having a bit of fun and what is it actually like going and working where you're the curler who is the head of HR and all of those experiences, but it also inspires others. Yes. Which again, that can't be what you can't see for others and to see this.

Speaker 01:

Yeah.

Sam:

It just opens up so much more opportunity. Yeah, yeah. Did you know that this sort of locum work existed? If you look back.

Chris:

Oh, definitely not. No.

Sam:

Because when you said you locumed in the UK, what's that like compared to locoming at the same time?

Chris:

Locuming. It was just like, oh, the hospital I was already working in, they need doctors. I don't even know if it was called locoming. It was just like, I'm just filling in some like roster gaps. And yeah, to if someone had told me this was available like in those dark years, I'd be like, oh, well, at least I've got that to look forward to. Um so I guess yeah, you're right, by sharing my story, people can see, look at this guy's lifestyle. That's actually something that I'm inspired by. Kind of like how I was inspired by Ali Abdal. Hopefully someone will see my content and be like, oh I like I'm a doctor, I'm kind of burning out, but this is an option for me.

Sam:

I feel like um the younger generations now are really redefining what it means to have a career in so many different things. But if we look at healthcare, like if you think about what you went into and that study, and now you know to be able to be a content creator, to travel, to do all the things. Do you think that there's a big shift happening systemically through these systems? You know, these younger generations aren't gonna put a stand for the burnout and they want different things.

Chris:

Yeah, I think so. And especially with like seeing it online, it's they they know there's other options out there. Like they don't have to just do one career for their whole life and like stick with it if they hate it. There are loads of things. They could even work part-time, they could have like side hustle online, they can do whatever they want.

Kate:

How is that viewed from maybe more long-term people who were more of the old school thought of this is my career, this is my life, I'm the pillar of the community, and this is you know, is there is a backlash of friction? Yeah.

Chris:

Yeah. It's I don't know, because I haven't spoken to them like You're not feeling it at the moment.

Kate:

Yeah.

Chris:

You're not invited to those circles, those working groups.

Sam:

What are these young kids on YouTube doing?

Chris:

I have oh I guess I've been to some like locums and the consultant like finds out I've got content and they're like often they just like, oh, that's cool, but they don't really like understand like what exactly I'm doing. Some of them like, oh, I could never share that much of my life online, that kind of thing. But it's not just about content creation. That's what I was gonna say.

Kate:

It's not even there are people with other passions. And I think people are just now looking at their life and thinking, what do I want my life to be? Yeah. And a career fits into that.

Chris:

Yeah.

Kate:

Whereas before it might have been what is my career going to look like.

Sam:

Whereas now the career has to be every single day and there's no room for anything else.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't have space to explore outside of your own job. Yeah.

Sam:

It's um Do you think we need to then redefine as well what success looks like in healthcare? Because I feel like, say, being a doctor, it was all very much about the status of being a doctor and it's working hard at long hours and I'm successful if I'm there seven days a week.

Speaker 01:

Yeah.

Sam:

Does that need to be reframed now for the newer generations coming through to get more excited about wanting to join healthcare careers?

Kate:

And because we still need people in all the metro areas. Yes. The the work that you know isn't really for you now. What needs to shift to make that sustainable attractive?

Chris:

Yeah, we need to appreciate that everyone's definition of success is personal. Like everyone wants different things. Like it's it's totally okay for some people who they do want to climb up that ladder, they want to become a neurosurgeon, they want the the titles, they want that kind of like life. That's cool, we need those people. But then it's also okay for people who they don't see that as a successful life because like if I did that for example, I would be miserable. Um success is like it's not a title, it's more like a feeling of your day-to-day, I think. And I once did a locum where I was working along alongside a consultant who he said he had a very diff different definition of success, and he told me about his reverse week, which was that he worked two days and had five days off. So he'd work two days as an emergency consultant, and then five days he'd be hydrofoiling by the beach or or whatever. And that was his de definition of success, and like it would be very different to a lot of doctors or uh other professionals definition. Obviously, you'd get paid less by working less, but it didn't matter.

Kate:

What's important to you is different. So, what does success look like for you?

Chris:

For me, I'm very inspired by that consultance, kind of like reverse week. Um I think having I to be honest, my life now, I feel like I'm very happy. Like obviously I still want to kind of get I guess get the title of being a GP just because it will open more doors. Also, I get a bit more training and like get feel a bit more comfortable.

Kate:

What is it about GP that interests you?

Chris:

I think like I said before, I'm a very multi-passionate person. There's nothing more boring to me than just specializing in one thing. Like I want to do all these different things. And GP and emergency as well, to be fair, by hate night shifts. Um you see everything. Like, and you can kind of make it what you want. It can be very varied. Um so like a successful life to me would be working a couple days as a GP and then the other days doing content or spending time with family, friends, um just living life outside of medicine.

Sam:

Do you think that this is a big call if you do, but do you think that coming out and doing this locum life uh really saved your career in medicine?

Chris:

Do you Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a good question. Definitely. Because doing locum stuff, it gave me more time outside of medicine to explore other passions like content, for example. If I was still working full-time all the time, and knowing that I'd only be doing that full-time stuff for the rest of my life, I think I'd be like, is this really it? I've got so much other things that I want to try. Um I think so.

Kate:

So if you think about attracting people into healthcare, you're really inspiring people that you can build the healthcare career that you want. It doesn't have to be any certain way. It sounds like there are just so many pathways, so many options, so much variety for anyone, which I think is a really important message. Yeah. Do you still choose a career in health? I think out of post-COVID years where you know it's challenging, isn't it? I think there's a lot of people um who have felt the strain. And I think it's just really important that anyone feeling like that, there could be an alternative option still within healthcare. Yes, yeah, you don't have to just quit.

Sam:

You don't have to leave healthcare, you can still fall back in love. Absolutely.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah. And the m the more like control and space you have over it, the more you actually enjoy it, I think. Like when I go to work now, I actually enjoy it because I'm not there every single day of the week. I'm just there like because I chose to be there. Which is yeah.

Kate:

And then exploring all these new locations.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah. Get to travel, get to go around the country, see Australia.

Kate:

Or getting paid.

Chris:

Whilst getting paid, yeah.

Sam:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What's um one change you think we could make now that would make healthcare happier for everyone?

Chris:

Yeah, that's a a difficult one. Big, small change, cover the change. Top ten, you know. Yeah. So it's hard because obviously the reason healthcare is bad for health workers at times, especially on NHS and stuff, is because of the system that they work in where they're under-resourced, understaffed. That is like, I guess, politically, maybe things need to change. They need more funding for the public health system, whatever. That's really hard to do. I guess what we could do from the ground up is like maybe like a cultural change around celebrating healthcare workers who do things outside of medicine. Not celebrating like martyrdom where you feel like you have to sacrifice your health, your mental health, your physical health to be a doctor or or whatever. Um So yeah, I guess like cultural shifts around that.

Sam:

Because that um it's in such conflict, isn't it? Celebrating that martyrdom. We won't look after our own health.

Chris:

Yeah.

Sam:

You know, but yet we're healthcare workers.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sam:

Even just to shift that that's mindset, yeah.

Chris:

Yeah. Like not encouraging people to s stay two hours after after work to get their the work done. No, that that hasn't happened here.

Sam:

That was like it does happen, and that's definitely come up in some of our other conversations where um you know nurses have said they're they stay back and they do another shift and another shift and often come in early the next day and it's it's just a constant cycle. And they were saying, yes, from uh from the ground up, it's it's from leadership not s asking more and more and more, but it's equally for the healthcare workers to say no, like I need a break or or I've got these things on. So it's but making that okay, you know, it's just a different conversation. Yeah.

Kate:

Bringing in mind to everything that we know about other areas outside of health, of of how we need to treat people in the workplace and and how to inspire people to want to come back tomorrow.

Speaker 01:

Yeah, yeah.

Kate:

And recharge.

Sam:

Like you can't you can't keep working and serving when you're you're on empty, physically, mentally, emotionally.

Kate:

That's another shift. The culture is, you know, they say it's how you feel the night before you go to work.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's sort of the Sunday scary. Yeah, the sundae scaries. I've never heard that too. Not anything.

Sam:

You guys are gonna get in front of a boss after any boss scary. But to be honest, though, probably that's what we really love coming in more. Like, I d I don't have that, but I can't imagine. I probably did a little when I was an occupational therapist. Yeah. And I remember um probably similar to you, I was a bit like, oh, is this it? And I didn't do it for very long. And I remember when I went to the UK in the NHS, they'd be ringing and going, Do you want this shift? Do you want to do this locum? I was like, not really.

Kate:

And you weren't qualified. You were like, I can't do that. I don't want to go to the room.

Sam:

Yeah, I don't want to go work in that room. I'm better off in pediatrics or whatever it might be. That's not my jam, mental health. So yeah, I did feel it then. Yeah. And I do sometimes think, had I not felt like that, or if I'd seen something a bit more exciting ahead of me, maybe I would have stayed in it. You know? So instead I went and recruited occupational therapists because I felt like I was on the sidelines of the profession. You know. It's not too late. No, I'm I'm all in now. I'm gonna become a content creator. Yeah, imagine. Okay.

Kate:

No. Well, so today, CMR are gonna be making a donation to a charity of your choice with this episode.

Chris:

Yeah.

Kate:

Where can we donate to?

Chris:

So I chose Against Malaria Foundation, if that's okay for you. Of course. It's just your choice. Just because I really like so I got introduced to the idea of effective altruism. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. No, don't. Basically, you are trying to instead of like it's not really about you feeling good about your donation, but actually putting your money where it will do the most, uh, give the most benefit. So I've from my understanding against Malaria Foundation, you almost get the most bang for your buck, I guess, in terms of like life save because it's very simple. Mosquito nets are really cheap. Um so I guess your money goes a bit further.

Sam:

So what a great choice. Yeah, I love that. Fantastic. Chris, thank you so much.

Chris:

Thank you so much. Like it's been really cool sharing my story. Thank you for having this platform for like all other health professionals and doctors and nurses and everyone to share their story too. I think it's a really powerful thing.

Sam:

Thank you. No, it's our absolute pleasure. And yeah, I definitely think um, you know, it's so important that you can't be what you can't see. And from sharing your story, if we could inspire some of the younger generations as well to want to stay in health because they can be more than just that profession, or they can substitute something that enhances that, I think is just so powerful. So we really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you.

Chris:

Thank you so much.

Kate:

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which we meet, who for centuries have shared ancient methods of healing and cared for their communities. We pay our respects to elders past and present.

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Sam Miklos

Host
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Kate Coomber

Co-host