Ship physician - all you need to know

As part of a portfolio career spanning 20 years, Dr Ellen Welch spent 10 years working as a ship physician. Here, she tells us all about the role

How do I get into the role (including necessary qualifications)?

You will need at least three years’ postgraduate training and emergency medicine experience, together with up-to-date qualifications in basic life support, advanced life support, advanced paediatric life support, and advanced trauma life support. An ability to manage fractures, suture wounds and manage airways is needed alongside general practice skills. Applicants can contact the cruise line’s medical departments directly to discuss any other requirements.

How much does it pay?

This varies from company to company and wage varies depending on experience. You might work as part of a team of two doctors and three nurses, and typical starting salary is around US$10,000 per month (around £7,500).

How much time do I need to devote to it?

Typically, you will be assigned on a contract of between four and six months’ duration, so you’ll be away for a lengthy period.

What’s good about the job?

The role is extremely varied, with an average day’s work switching between dealing with UTIs and gastroenteritis, and treating people with diabetes or hypertension, to being an ICU doctor thrombolysing an MI, ventilating a guest with an intracranial haemorrhage, or organising a blood transfusion for a patient with a GI bleed.

It entails working closely with colleagues in both the medical facility and the wider ship to organise the logistics involved in safely transferring sick patients to definitive care on land. You also get to travel the world while saving the money you don’t spend on rent, food and commuting.

What’s bad about the job?

You are on board 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and although you share the ‘on-call’ duties, it feels as though you’re at work all the time. You are also effectively living alongside your patients, which can be challenging.

Dr Ellen Welch wrote about this and several other roles in Portfolio Careers for GPs