Swedish journey of a Pakistani doctor > UK

There are certain things that I have noticed and will probably keep noticing that are different between Sweden and the UK. I think it'd be good if I write about them here, so they can stop occupying space in my brain. I am also feeling that I need a witness to my working years there, as it was a part of me that only I know and will remember.  The first time I saw women in scrubs outside in England, I thought there must be some thing going on, the parent picking child up in scrubs must be in some serious hurry. Turns out, no. Many people do this. It was specially evident outside the hospital around 5 pm. Different colours of scrubs leaving for home, as if it's totally normal. And it is.  In Sweden, people would want to go out to get lunch (which is a topic for another day), and I would see them change out of scrubs, some would just change the trousers as they would be visible under your jacket. Some had longer jackets so the scrubs were hidden and only leggings showed. Shoes we...

 When I moved to Sweden there was a general lack of information from other people about the route to medical license. Later on there were certain threads on some online platforms, facebook groups and few YouTube videos. Anyway, for me individually there was not enough info when I needed it. There were people in my shoes: people moving with their partners, some came with another visa, many were refugees, and some were Swedish people who studied abroad due to limited medical school seats in Sweden. Some people going through the process are specialists from non-EU countries. But you would meet all of these people while working, not before you started the process of getting the license. Now to compare that with UK. There are hoards of information available, so many businesses around preparing for the exams. Many people taking PLAB route are doctors in their own countries wishing to move to the UK, some moved as spouses or other visas. Most are early after graduation, others after long ...

Life got very busy during the second half of AT. I reduced to 80% work so it extended my AT by a couple months. I took AT exam after finishing training and cleared it. The long awaited "Legitimation" was home. In general things got pretty tough to balance by this time so I decided to take a break and focus on home, kids and myself. During this time we decided to move to the UK. I'll post about the reasons and the process at a later date.  Anyhow, I took time to wrap things up in Sweden, we sold the house, and took the time to settle in. Now that things were a bit calmer, and all my kids were in school from 9am to 3pm, I shifted focus to career once again. Due to certain rules about required length of training after license in Sweden, I did not qualify for a direct registration with the GMC. It turns out my pathway will include taking PLAB! It took some time to come to terms with this new reality, as I was expecting to get registration directly because of going through the...