Portsmouth doctor starts podcast to tell fellow medics ‘your job title doesn’t have to define you’

A DOCTOR has started a podcast in an effort to normalise the conversation around medical professionals questioning their careers and taking back control of their lives.
Dr Alisha Damani, creator of The Medic TodayDr Alisha Damani, creator of The Medic Today
Dr Alisha Damani, creator of The Medic Today

Alisha Damani, from Farlington, works part time as a hospital doctor in Portsmouth and says through self-development she has ‘taken back control’ of her life, after feeling lost whilst working as a doctor.

The 33-year-old said: ‘Studying medicine, it’s a very structured programme but I’ve always felt there’s more to me. I’m a human being before I’m a doctor and I felt that something was missing in the training structure to acknowledge that.’

After reading the first enquiry into doctors wellbeing in 2019 – the GMC Caring For Doctors, Caring For Patients report – Alisha wanted to start a conversation about the outcomes of the publication.

Dr Alisha Damani, creator of The Medic TodayDr Alisha Damani, creator of The Medic Today
Dr Alisha Damani, creator of The Medic Today

Realising a podcast would be the best platform to host the conversations, she started The Medic Today, with the first episode released in November 2020.

She started ‘speaking from her heart’, not realising the impact it would have on doctors around the world.

She said: ‘Once it came out, I was getting messages from people I don’t even know saying “thank you for this conversation, it’s given me permission to feel not guilty about questioning who I am and my career”.’

Alisha invites fellow doctors on the podcast to discuss their journeys through medicine as well as their projects that they run outside of their medical careers, to ‘redefine what it means to be a doctor.’

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She said she felt like medical professionals aren’t allowed to question their career paths, which are often heavily structured with years of training and exams, and that career changes are often frowned upon.

Alisha said: ‘As doctors we put a lot of time and energy into our careers and our education. There are high levels of burnout and people are overworked. One of the biggest complaints is that people just don’t have time for themselves or for their families.’

She wants the podcast to show people that they can grow and develop themselves alongside working as a doctor, and that it’s important for people to take back control of their lives, saying ‘we have to ask ourselves, who am I if I’m not a doctor?.’

Alisha is also developing an online personal development course and will be hosting The Medic Today’s first face to face conference in Oxford in 2022.

The Medic Today podcast is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. To find out more, visit themedictoday.co.uk or The Medic Today on Instagram.

Story by Sophie Murray

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