Career Breaks and Returning to Work

Returning to work after a period of absence

Anaesthetists may be away from their normal working environment for many reasons and these periods of absence can extend from months to years. As a result, a return to work package may have to incorporate a major retraining component and the huge variation in supervisory and training requirements means there can be no generic package of the ‘one size fits all’ design.

A considerable amount of time and effort will need to go into each anaesthetist’s personal educational plan, taking into account factors such as length of time away from work, previous levels of experience and essential skills and competencies for their specific area of practice.

Anaesthetists returning to work broadly fall into two groups:

• Expectation of a return to normal practice in a short period of time (the majority)
• Returning to work where it is unclear if the individual will be able to perform the duties expected of him/her

Examples of reasons for absence from the workplace include:

• Maternity/paternity leave
• A period of full time research
• Health – physical and mental
• Approved leave of absence in support of national/international activity
• Secondment to another body
• Carers leave
• Charitable work overseas
• Approved career break
• Suspension by Trust or GMC

Please download the complete document above for further information.
Published: March 2011, updated May 2012.

Further information:

• The Training Curriculum
• Guidance on Return to Practice issued by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
• Medical Women’s Federation - Career Breaks for NHS and University doctors: An analysis of the WAM database