Foreword

Welcome to this edition of your Deanery newsletter and a very special welcome to our new FY doctors and doctors who have joined us from the rest of the UK, and further afield. Scotland with its distinguished medical heritage is a great choice and you will benefit from the excellent medical education we have to offer.

First off, we recap on the recently held Scottish Medical Education Conference, providing links to recordings of the sessions that took place and allowing you to learn from the speakers and participants who explored a range of topics.  Further to welcoming new colleagues, we include key links to relevant information, not least a link the Scotland Deanery Website, our main repository for information, where you will find answers to most queries and failing that links to Deanery staff, who are here to help.

COVID-19 has dominated most aspects of life over the past 18 months or so and through our comprehensive COVID-19 survey we are now able to assess its impact on our doctors-in-training. This focusses on what it meant for you in terms of your training, the service work you provided and your own personal and professional experiences. The survey reveals a picture of significant disruption and stressful conditions for those in clinical training programmes. Important learning has been captured to inform and improve both our current response and future clinical training arrangements.

Study leave is an important resource for all trainees and to make sure you fully benefit we have flagged-up links to the latest information and guidance. Following this we give news of the forthcoming NES Bereavement Conference and the UK level DEMEC medical education conference, both of which should be of interest and value to doctors in training, and their trainers

Lastly, this is the first mobile phone enabled version of the newsletter that will greatly ease access to Deanery news and information.

My best wishes to all and particularly those staring out on their training journey!