Dr Samuel Birks is an emergency medicine doctor working in South Yorkshire and a medical educator at the University of Sheffield Medical School. Sam’s clinical career spans 8 years and he now works as an A&E registrar for part of his working week. For the rest of the week, Sam holds a permanent teaching position at the medical school. After demonstrating his commitment to medical education over 7 years of teaching alongside his clinical training, Sam now holds a position as a university teacher in medical education, focusing on anatomy and digital learning. His passion and enthusiasm for teaching anatomy in particular has additionally led him to his current position of interim Academic Lead for Anatomy.

In this online talk, we’ll take a look at Dr Birks career route from medical student to clinician and anatomist whilst he provides insight into how others can sculpt a clinical and academic career. We’ll focus on various aspects such as securing academic or teaching jobs, locum working, less-than-full-time training, and some of the pros and cons of these important career decisions. Dr Birks will highlight the possibility of alternative careers outside of full-time clinical medicine (which often seems to be the only outcome after medical school) and some places to seek inspiration.