A DAY IN THE KNIFE: “This is What I Want to Do” with Megan Baker

01 June 2026

Megan Baker, 33, lives in South Yorkshire with her cat Albert. She is an ST5 orthopaedic trainee and President of the British Orthopaedic Trainees Association (BOTA). Megan represents Orthopaedic Trainees on the CBS Board.

Megan’s journey into medicine came later than many of her peers, she was inspired by a video of a young girl during her final years at school. She explains,

“I was very late at deciding I wanted to do medicine. It was the summer before Year 13, I’d always been very adamant that I didn’t want to do medicine, despite being fairly clever at school. Then, (really cliché!), I saw a cool video of a young girl who was having seizures and they decided to cut out half her brain so that she stopped having seizures - and she still had a pretty normal life. I thought that was really cool and I wanted to do that.”

The decision to pursue medicine came as a surprise to her family and friends. “It was all a bit of a shock to everyone. I have no medics in my family, I’m the first one, so everyone was a bit like, ‘Hold on, this is new.’ I did a foundation year at university because I hadn’t done the right A-levels, and that was through the University of Sheffield. Effectively, if I was successful in passing that year, I got onto a medicine degree, which was again part of the University of Sheffield. So I did another five years at uni after that.”

During medical school Megan faced challenges that tested her confidence and resilience, she was also unexpectedly diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 19. She says,

“In my first year of medical school, I very quickly realised that you’ve gone from being a big fish in a little pond to a little fish in a big pond. Everyone was very clever and I wasn’t quite as clever. I specifically remember my first ever essay. I got the feedback: ‘Really good context, but awfully written.’ At that point I got referred for dyslexia testing and I found out at age 19 that I was dyslexic. That was a stepping-back moment of, ‘Oh God, can I do this?’ But I received quite a lot of support and help, which was good. I had a couple of very good friends who used to check all my work for me.”

Although she initially ruled out a surgical career, a placement in orthopaedics completely changed her perspective. “In the first few years of med school I was very adamant that I didn’t want to be a surgeon. I was taught surgeons don’t care about their patients and don’t talk to people. Then I did my orthopaedic placement at university and I absolutely loved it. I walked away from those two weeks being like, ‘This is what I want to do’.”

Like many healthcare professionals, Megan experienced periods where the pressures of medicine made her question her future in the profession. She explains,

“One of the hardest periods for me was during COVID. I was working a general surgical job and it was coming up to December time. I was on nights for Christmas and my family were meant to come up, but three days before Christmas they were put into Tier 3, so they weren’t allowed to come. At that point I was a bit like, ‘God, what am I doing? This is horrible. I don’t like my job, I’m on my own, I’m not sure this is for me.’ Then I subsequently went on to an orthopaedic job and loved it, and it renewed my faith in the world.”

Megan also reflects on the wider challenges facing patients and healthcare staff across the NHS. “I think one thing the public maybe doesn’t understand is that we’re all frustrated about the same thing. We get annoyed when patients are delayed seeing us, or when it takes forever to get an appointment. We know it’s not our fault, but there’s ultimately nothing we can do, sometimes it does get you down. Unfortunately there are so many people in this boat trying to all get the same treatment. We can’t bump people up just because they’re having a tough time, because everyone’s having a tough time.”

Although there were some doubts, a defining moment during her training cemented her decision. Megan identified her vocation and hasn't looked back since. “One of the days I’ll always remember was working with a consultant who was a revision arthroplasty surgeon and did a significant amount of complex work, including metastatic stuff. The case we were doing that day was a proximal femoral replacement for metastatic disease, a big massive operation, a big cut, lots of bone coming away and I was a little bit anxious. My consultant let me do the whole thing from start to finish. I walked away from that day absolutely buzzing. I remember ringing my dad and saying, ‘Dad, I did something really cool today,”

Outside of work, Megan has developed ways to maintain balance and wellbeing despite the demands of surgical training. “Outside of medicine, I’m a big traveller. The minute I walk out of the train station in a new city, I immediately feel better. I’m very bad at switching off when I’m at home, but when I’m in a different place, that’s when I properly relax. I want to explore the history of the place, see all the sights and try all the food. That’s probably the biggest thing keeping me sane, that and exercise. Without those two things I’d probably lose the will to live.”

Pushing through the hurdles, Megan takes pride in both her achievements and the support network that has helped her reach this point. She also shares some advice for those wishing to launch a similar career. She concludes,

“I feel most proud of how proud my family feels about me. When I hear them talk about me, or hear from their friends about everything they’ve been saying, that feels pretty cool. The biggest advice I’d give to someone considering this career is find a buddy. Someone who’s doing the same thing as you, and be a cheerleader for each other. There’ll be days where you don’t feel like you can do it, so you need someone else to tell you that you can. Find a buddy, hold on to them and cheerlead for them as much as they cheerlead for you. I'd like to give a little shout out to Sophie, Sophie's my cheerleader.”

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