We’re losing a partner to Qatar in two weeks. He’s only been a partner for less than two years.

Maybe try reflux meds or anti-mucolytics?

That makes more sense

My partner is a maths teacher, she has SKE’s for Chemistry, Physics and Biology as well. She does not mention these to anyone at work as “why would I want to get paid the same to teach multiple different subjects as I do to teach one?”

So you’d have to conclude that there many of those who had the smarts to become doctors based on A-level grades, are now earning much less than doctors, would you not?

And many are earning more. Which is the original point! Pick your comparison!

Apologies to the rest of the thread.

Leaving asside any discussion on what different jobs “should” be paid, there is one significant difference with public sector pay – the “employer” gets 25-40% of the rise straight back to their own budgets in income tax. So a 2.8% rise only costs maybe 1.8-2% in overall terms.

what if you work for a town or a county council? Do their budgets increase with an increase in income tax?

Not all A levels are of equal difficulty. 3 A’s from Sociology, Business and PE doesn’t really compare to Biology, Chemistry, Maths or Physics etc which medical students need.

True. If we account for that, is it fair to say that to have the potential to be a doctor you need to be top-10% in terms of academic ability?

If so I’d say we’re still a very long way from being able to guarantee that person could make it to board room positions in the private sector.

Top-10% is great but it is not a rare level of ability by any means. And let’s not forget that to do very well in the private sector you usually need a lot more than just academic ability.

We then took 3 A’s at A-level as the academic standard an individual needs to reach in order to demonstrate potential to become a doctor. So if that point was true you’d expect people who have 3 A’s at A-level to be earning more than doctors on average.

But that alone won’t get you in to medical school. You have to have work experience too and other extra curricular stuff . In fact not sure 3 A’s does get you in to medical school school.

A levels are easy compared to Royal College Exams that come later.

But that alone won’t get you in to medical school. You have to have work experience too and other extra curricular stuff . In fact not sure 3 A’s does get you in to medical school school.

A levels are easy compared to Royal College Exams that come later.

I don’t doubt it. A-levels alone don’t mean anything in most private sector professions either, and are likewise easy compared to the professional qualifications that come later.

FWIW I was picking my career path in the last half of the last labour government when doctors were considered to be paid well. I would  in fact say it was the thing most associated with the job. I chose engineering instead purely out of personal interest, but I never expected to earn as much as a doctor. I think the gap has narrowed significantly now, it’s no longer a selling point certainly – if a school kid wants to chase money now I suspect software engineer (or similar) is now the default recommendation.

@onehundredthidiot

COSLA are going to work hard at suppressing any uplift in pay in the next round and staff numbers are not going to increase.

This is exactly what I mean. I have actually been checking and the COSLA offer to the unions does say “An offer which attempts to addresses the inflationary pressure on your members, within the funding pressures noted above, and, above that, includes the first step in restoration of pay as requested by the teacher’s panel in our negotiations.” Will COSLA stick to their word? Will the unions, who seem to have it in writing, hold them to it?

On the last day the EIS had us called out to strike, they has already decided that they were going to settle, but didn’t reveal this until the next day. This caused a lot of bad feeling amongst my colleagues. The very day they announce agreement, the EIS Twitter feed was full of the unveiling of their Billboard campaign for Pay Attention 10%. WTF? Given that you’ve just settled, why put up posters?

4
KramerFree Member
Hospital doctors – consultants and trainees ~ 2.8% following 20% pay rise agreed last year.

GPs – 2.8% following 6% pay rise last year.

And then they wonder why they can’t retain GPs?

Your friendly skiers may have got 20% last year but if they did so it was because they were in a particularly beneficial part of the pay scale and very much in a minority. The agreement that settled the consultants’ pay dispute significantly shortened the number of years it takes to get from the bottom to  the top of the pay scale and therefore some individuals moved up dramatically. At my stage of career it was more like 11% and in fact I slightly reduced my regular overtime to take part of the rise in time rather than pay. Sorry, I cannot hack 48-52 hour weeks anymore. That is on the back of a 22% or so real terms reduction in pay since 2008, hence the campaign last year being for pay restoration rather than pay rise. No comparable pay grouping had seen anywhere near that degree of fall behind https://x.com/goldstone_tony/ status/1743335070692155616/photo/1  although overall there has on average been a 2% fall back in all workers pay over that time.

This is the government’s bid to the review bodies, I suspect that the unions’ evidence is going to be slightly different, and it is going to be very interesting to see what the review bodies do. In the case of the doctors, a large part of the agreement to settle the dispute was the re-establishment of the review body so that it had an increased level of expertise and so that its remit included taking into consideration pay levels in similar professions in the UK and for doctors abroad.

Within my specialty in my hospital we should have four consultants, but currently have two. Both of us could retire with full pension in the next 18 months and of the other two posts one colleague moved abroad and doubled their salary and the other we just cannot get anyone to apply for and haven’t been able to since before the pandemic.

And yes, we are still better off than our GP colleagues, and yes, the resident doctors ( as the trainees are now described ) are going to be singularly unimpressed.

if a school kid wants to chase money now I suspect software engineer (or similar) is now the default recommendation.

Going away from main theme but I’d advise mathematics to anyone starting out and then specialise in data science and AI /ML. Software is mainly out in India and China now and 90% of code begins with an ask to an AI engine.

With the rise of AI we will see a very different landscape for jobs and wearable tech advances will be particularly transformational for health care professionals not always in a good way for them.

When AI can do a Hartmann’s I will be impressed.

We should be more impressed when AI comes up with preventatives and detect disease much earlier and thus reduce the need for such invasive surgery.

We should be more impressed when AI comes up with preventatives and detect disease

That already exists. Are we saying that if its AI is telling people to stop being lazy, slovenly shits who need to eat less crap and move more then people will listen?

I won’t hold my breath.

We should be more impressed when AI comes up with preventatives and detect disease much earlier and thus reduce the need for such invasive surgery.

The problem is that to detect the disease earlier you almost certainly end up with more false positives, which not only cause patients needless worry but block up the healthcare system with the worried well.

That already exists. Are we saying that if its AI is telling people to stop being lazy, slovenly shits who need to eat less crap and move more then people will listen?

AI could learn how to word the advice in a way that patients find non-judgemental or with realistic stepping stones rather than expecting overnight transformative change.

I’ll be more impressed when AI can write a test for 14yo’s on simple electrical circuits.

Simple Electrical Circuits Test
Instructions:
* Read each question carefully.
* Choose the best answer for each question.
* Show your work for any calculations.
Section 1: Multiple Choice
1. What are the three main components of a simple electrical circuit?
A. Battery, wire, switch
B. Bulb, wire, switch
C. Battery, bulb, wire
D. All of the above
2. What is the purpose of a battery in a circuit?
A. To light the bulb
B. To provide energy to the circuit
C. To control the flow of electricity
D. To connect the components together
3. What is the purpose of a switch in a circuit?
A. To light the bulb
B. To provide energy to the circuit
C. To control the flow of electricity
D. To connect the components together
4. What is the purpose of a wire in a circuit?
A. To light the bulb
B. To provide energy to the circuit
C. To control the flow of electricity
D. To connect the components together
5. What happens to the brightness of two bulbs connected in series if you add a third bulb?
A. The bulbs get brighter
B. The bulbs stay the same brightness
C. The bulbs get dimmer
D. The bulbs turn off
6. What happens to the brightness of two bulbs connected in parallel if you add a third bulb?
A. The bulbs get brighter
B. The bulbs stay the same brightness
C. The bulbs get dimmer
D. The bulbs turn off
7. If one bulb in a series circuit burns out, what happens to the other bulbs?
A. The other bulbs stay lit
B. The other bulbs get dimmer
C. The other bulbs turn off
D. Nothing happens
8. If one bulb in a parallel circuit burns out, what happens to the other bulbs?
A. The other bulbs stay lit
B. The other bulbs get dimmer
C. The other bulbs turn off
D. Nothing happens
9. Which type of circuit provides more light, a series circuit or a parallel circuit?
A. Series circuit
B. Parallel circuit
C. They provide the same amount of light
D. It depends on the number of bulbs
10. Which type of circuit is more common in homes, a series circuit or a parallel circuit?
A. Series circuit
B. Parallel circuit
C. They are equally common
D. It depends on the appliance
Section 2: Short Answer
1. Draw a diagram of a simple electrical circuit with a battery, bulb, and switch.
2. Explain the difference between a series circuit and a parallel circuit.
3. What is the purpose of a fuse in an electrical circuit?
4. What is the difference between a conductor and an insulator?
5. Give two examples of conductors and two examples of insulators.
Section 3: Problem Solving
1. A student builds a circuit with three bulbs connected in series. If the voltage of the battery is 9 volts, what is the voltage across each bulb?
2. A student builds a circuit with two bulbs connected in parallel. If the current through one bulb is 2 amps, what is the total current in the circuit?
3. A student wants to build a circuit with four bulbs connected in parallel. If each bulb has a resistance of 10 ohms, what is the total resistance of the circuit?
4. A student has a circuit with a battery, a bulb, and a switch. The student wants to add another bulb to the circuit. Draw two different ways that the student could add the second bulb.
5. A student is troubleshooting a circuit that is not working. What are three things the student could check to try to fix the circuit?
Answer Key
Section 1: Multiple Choice
1. D
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. C
6. B
7. C
8. A
9. B
10. B
Section 2: Short Answer
1. Diagram should show a battery, bulb, and switch connected in a loop.
2. In a series circuit, the components are connected one after the other, so the current flows through each component in turn. In a parallel circuit, the components are connected across each other, so the current can flow through each component independently.
3. A fuse is a safety device that melts and breaks the circuit if the current gets too high, preventing a fire.
4. A conductor is a material that allows electricity to flow through it easily, while an insulator is a material that does not allow electricity to flow through it easily.
5. Conductors: copper, silver, gold, aluminum
Insulators: plastic, rubber, wood, glass
Section 3: Problem Solving
1. 3 volts
2. 4 amps
3. 2.5 ohms
4. The student could add the second bulb in series with the first bulb, or in parallel with the first bulb.
5. The student could check the battery to make sure it is working, check the wires to make sure they are connected properly, and check the bulbs to make sure they are not burned out.

Courtesy of Gemini.

All I put in was something along the lines of write a test for 14 year olds on simple electrical circuits. If you have the course spec or text you can copy that in and ask it to generate questions based on that.

I’ve used it for this quite a bit and although it produces the odd dud question it’s generally pretty good and at least gives a framework. It also sometimes throws up something you wouldn’t have thought of which can be very useful.

I wouldn’t use it for things like SQA unit assessments where there are hard criteria or for something high stakes like a prelim but for quick understanding checks it’s an absolute game changer.

Too many teachers are dismissive of it for the same reason they dismiss resources produced by others or commercial materials; that it’s not exactly how they’d do it. This is one of the biggest generators of unnecessary work in teaching.

The problem is that to detect the disease earlier you almost certainly end up with more false positives, which not only cause patients needless worry but block up the healthcare system with the worried well.

Getting a real Luddite vibe 🙂

Why would you have a higher FP or FN? The whole point of AI is that it does a better job at reduce FP while not impacting FN than a human (thus freeing up more time incidentally) otherwise why would you bother? No one should be deploying an ML model that performs worse than a human in a safety critical scenario.