09 December 2020
We're currently focusing on encouraging others to join the specialty by providing more information and an insight into what it's like to have a career in rheumatology, please share these interviews with others to help us with this initiative. Next up in our Careers in rheumatology series, we caught up with a consultant paediatric and adolescent rheumatologist. Here's what Dr Kathy Bailey from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust had to say about her career journey so far.
Why did you choose paediatric and adolescent rheumatology?
One of my junior training rotations included some experience of paediatric and adolescent rheumatology and I really enjoyed that. It was a new insight into a multidisciplinary team looking after children with long-term conditions.
Paediatric and adolescent rheumatology is about managing children through a new diagnosis, it’s treatment and the impact that it has on them and their family as they grow up. Also, it’s a specialty that relies on clinical skills; it’s about taking a good history, examining the patient and the physical and clinical features, interpreting the relevance of investigations and working out what's going on.
Often patients have been seen by lots of other doctors before and it’s rewarding to be able to come to a diagnosis. I also enjoyed the practical skills needed doing joint injections.
What was your career journey like?
I started off at medical school wanting to be a GP, and when I came out of medical school I started on the GP training pathway. My first placement was in paediatrics and it was a great place to be, partly because of the family involvement and because everybody is very open, friendly and supportive in paediatrics. Children get very poorly but mostly bounce back and get better quickly too.
I loved my registrar experience in paediatrics and the buzz of A&E but for the long term wanted to get to know children and their families in an outpatient-based specialty. Having had early experience in paediatric and adolescent rheumatology, I returned to this and a six-month post became two years and the foundation for my specialty training in the days before GRID training existed.
My career direction ended up being based on what I was exposed to at that time and seeing passionate, enthusiastic role models and the difference good care could make to children and young people with chronic inflammatory conditions, as well as those with benign musculoskeletal pain, who needed a good explanation to be able to live well.
Why do you love what you do?
It’s a rapidly growing specialty; the conditions we see are changing rapidly and the opportunities new medication brings to improving outcomes. What I also love about rheumatology is the community we share, we all know each other really well. Everybody supports each other, shares good practice and help answer difficult clinical questions; anything you're concerned about, there'll be somebody there to help you. We are all really motivated as a specialty to provide high-quality care.
What’s your advice for someone thinking about a career as a paediatric and adolescent consultant in rheumatology?
The route to paediatric and adolescent rheumatology is through core training as a paediatrician and then specialty training. There are lots of opportunities for research and an academic career if that’s where your interest lies. All of the information about how to train is on the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health website. There’s information about access to training, the competencies, how to get a national GRID training post or do any supplementary training to develop a special interest as a trainee or post-CCT paediatrician.
Click here more information on what roles there are in rheumatology careers.
Find out more