This post is about finding my GPwSI niche. How I developed toward my niche general practice work but never in a straight line! think I have made developing your GPwSI niche sound straightforward in some prior posts. Of course life and work is never that simple! Life takes a meandering course and small twists and turns arise that looking back are important to your journey.
I have been developing a GPwSI in sexual health – PREP, MTOP and vasectomy. The vasectomy work has increased as the local tertiary hospitals have stopped offering this. This is useful, satisfying work to do, offering men and couples safe reliable contraception going forward. Obviously not everyone wants to spend 45minutes with an anxious man and his scrotum but it works for me! Providing vasectomies makes up a bit less than 20% of my work currently but still provides a niche that allows me to really develop my workflows, feel confident and autonomous in this area and provides a procedural change in pace to general consulting.
I would love to say I sat down and planned this out but the truth is bumpier than this. I came to medicine as a graduate, I was enrolled to study agricultural science on leaving high school, worked on vineyards in a gap year, started a wine making degree and ended up with a microbiology degree! I then came across to graduate medicine at Flinders university and after graduation worked around South Australia in rural GP positions.
After the children I was working in metro GP and wanted to extend myself. I had a look at simulation in GP my old website is here and the use of ultrasound in GP work as niches to develop. I explored these areas, teaching medical students ultrasound and presenting on simulation at conferences but these areas did not gel as directions to fully develop my work. The skills are rare, but not particularly valuable. However these explorations were not wasted avenues – the ultrasound I use in sexual health work for medical terminations and scrotal US. The in situ simulation training we have used in our practice for collapse after IUD insertion training. Finding your niche is not automatic, but knowledge and experience build up and you bring these skills with you to new areas. Don’t be afraid to try on new identities to see if they suit you.
There did seem to be more demand for sexual health work in Preston however and following some Business for Doctors conferences and seeing the work of George Forgan-Smith and his approach around working for your ideal patient, I started to focus more on this sexual health work.
I now work in a mix of general GP consulting and sexual health – providing Prep and MSM sexual health, Medical Termination and vasectomy. I have given away IUD placement so other doctors in our clinic can focus on this. Work in your area of excellence, other GPs have other skills and interests.
To appeal to patients and allow them to find me, I have folded in other skills – video presentations, building templates, automation’s, pro-forma letters, referral pathways for other doctors. This maintains interest, variety and keeps me keen to get into the practice on Monday morning.
This blog grew out of supporting other GPs in our practice to work on finding their GPwSI niche. I’m keen to keep talking about how I got here and how to help others get there.
Dr Simon Wilson