The First Two Weeks: A Survival Guide for Every New Trust

Every rotation starts the same way. New badge, new corridors, new consultants whose names you’ll mix up for a fortnight, and that particular flavour of chaos only a fresh induction can produce.

Over the years — and more house moves between trusts than I care to count — I’ve learned that the difference between a smooth start and a miserable one usually comes down to a handful of things nobody tells you on day one. So here they are, gathered from a thread I posted a while back, for anyone about to walk into a new department.

Sort the boring stuff first — it buys you peace later
Email Medical Education at your new trust before you arrive and send over every training certificate you have. Mandatory training that doesn’t transfer automatically (ESR and friends) is the single most tedious admin headache of any rotation, and it’s entirely avoidable if you’re proactive.

While you’re being organised: get your ID badge sorted early, and chase remote access (usually Cisco or Citrix) — nothing derails a night shift faster than not being able to log in from home.

Find your resources before you need them
Register with the library on day one. It’s free, it’s fast, and most people forget it exists until they desperately need a paper for an audit at 11pm. Many libraries also let you book quiet rooms for meetings, interviews, or courses — again, free. And don’t stop there: introduce yourself to the research team early.

Getting involved doesn’t have to mean a full trial — even small, appropriately-scaled projects build your CV and keep you plugged into what’s happening in the department.

People are the real induction
Timetables and passwords matter, but the real orientation happens in conversation. Meet your consultants and colleagues properly, and don’t be afraid to ask them what not to do — that’s often more valuable than what to do.

Ask for a proper departmental induction, and while you’re at it, locate the essentials: the doctors’ mess, the toilets, the gym. It sounds trivial until you’re the person wandering a hospital at 2am looking for a kettle.

Build your own head start
Pick a service improvement project early — it’s easier to start one in your first few weeks than to bolt one on later. Ask your educational supervisor for access to departmental and deanery teaching (open to everyone, often underused). Look into free leadership courses like LEEP — they’re a genuinely good use of study leave and look excellent on a portfolio.

And if you want to stand out, volunteer to help organise something: find the education lead, offer to help run M&Ms or arrange trainee teaching. It’s a small time investment that pays back in visibility and relationships.

The unglamorous but useful bits
Sort your leave early — whether that’s through your line manager or local rostering apps like Loop or Medirota — before the good weeks are gone. And don’t overlook industry reps (DePuy, Stryker, and others); they’re usually generous with contacts for discounted cadaveric courses, which can otherwise be eye-wateringly expensive.

None of this is glamorous. None of it will make a case report. But do most of it in your first fortnight, and you’ll spend far less energy fighting the system — and far more energy actually learning your new job.