Month: November 2013
Your training ideas – can you take on the Dragon’s?
A quick reminder of a great project for our junior docs. This is something that we would love to support through the trust and through postgrad. The Dragon’s den project funds great ideas from junior docs that improve on training, education or service delivery.
We love this idea and want to get applications from CMFT to showcase what we can do, previous projects have been great and this year there is an even bigger budget. The submissions need to be well thought through and most juniors will need help and advice from consultant sponsors, so please do give them as much help as you can.
You can pick up more details from their website by following this link Dragon’s Den.
Oh, and I suppose you want to know who the Dragon’s are. Who will you be up against as you pitch your ideas? Well……. the lucky participants will be trying to extract cash from 5 medical leaders from across the NW.
- Tracy Bullock, Chief Executive – Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Gary Francis, Medical Director – Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Professor Jacky Hayden, Dean of Postgraduate Education – North Western Deanery
- Sean Hughes, Medical Director – Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Jonathan Wood, Finance Director – East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
With that lot I wish you the best of luck. It’s going to be tough but fair, and almost certainly very entertaining.
Good luck and let us know if we can help.
S
A Clinical Career? Do you need some advice (or help in giving it?)
Question: Would you like a free….., lifetime……, personal…….., subscription to a careers journal?
- Answer YES – in which case we have a great offer for you.
- Answer NO – in which case we have a great offer for someone you know.
Either way read on……..
The Postgrad postbox receives a huge raft of invites to read new journals, publications and attend educational events. Many of these are a bit rubbish, but every so often one catches our eye and is worthy of sharing. ‘Clinical Career’ might be one that’s worth investigating for anyone considering their personal career, or for anyone advising others (and let’s face it that’s pretty much all of us). Here’s the link to the website
http://www.clinicalcareer.co.uk
There’s an offer on at the moment that encourages you to subscribe now. If you do then the subscription is a really great price (i.e. it’s free). The content is written by medics for trainers, trainees and all of us involved in medical education it makes an interesting read and we were impressed by the content. It also asks for nominations for inspirational people to interview, articles and stories.
Sadly, it doesn’t come with a free whoopee cushion as above but you can’t have everything.
New trust Social Media guidelines out.
If you are following the blog then it’s quite likely that you will have some interest, or at least access to social media.
Here in postgrad we believe social media (#SoMe for any twitteratti) is a fantastic tool for learning and sharing. In the trust we’ve got some great examples such as the undergrad team’s work on youtube, and the EDs work on socio-constructivist e-learning.
However, there are potential downsides to social media and it’s possibly (if you’re a bit daft) to get yourself in a spot of bother with patients, your employer and even the GMC. You may even remember the junior docs who were suspended for lying down on the job….
There’s quite a bit of guidance out there already, including the latest release of trust guidelines on the use of social media by staff. If you’re into this sort of thing give it a quick read. There’s little controversial in there and it’s all basically sensible stuff.
- GMC Guidance on Social Media Use
- MPS tweeting into trouble
- CMFT guidelines on Social media use social_media_guidelines__final_
In summary the rules for social media are pretty much the same rules as in all other forms of communication. Be sensible, be wise and don’t say anything online that you would not be prepared to be overheard whilst talking at a bus stop.
Social media does not make clinicians make errors, it’s just that when they do make mistakes it has the potential to be done in front of a much wider audience. As a colleague once put it…
‘social media does not make someone an idiot, it just helps them announce it to many more people’
My only concern is that we do not get carried away with the potential dangers of social media without also embracing the incredible potential for education and development. Learning through social media is already commonplace in many professions and within some medical specialities, it is inevitable that we will see a growth in clinician involvement and participation over the next few years.
#SoMe is the future…., well it is in Emergency Medicine anyway😉
vb
S
Shape of Training released. What are the implications?
A really important release this week on how we might see specialist, generalist and primary care training change in future years.
If you are involved in UG or PG then this is essential reading….for example…..
- 1. Registration to take place at the end of med school (not at the end of F1)
- 2. More flexible training times with longer placements.
- 3. Broad based speciality training as opposed to early super-specialisation
Anyway, you really need to read this and consider how things might change in your area of practice. You can find the full document here.
Shape_of_training_report_Final_Report.pdf_53900462
and if you’d prefer there is a video explaining the rationale here.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts like Damian’s here…
S
