Foreword

Welcome to the first edition of your Deanery newsletter for 2025.

The days are beginning to stretch out and we can all look forward to Spring. I am a keen gardener and love this time of year when seeds start to germinate, and new growth appears in the garden!

In this newsletter we are able to spotlight the experiences and successes of resident doctors! It is great to read about positive experiences and to celebrate successes and to reflect on the amazing impact you all make.

The first item tells of a story of the challenges and rewards of a journey through medical training in NHSScotland. A highly illuminating article of a resident doctor’s experiences. Thank you for sharing and thank you for choosing Scotland!

A Scottish Graduate Entry Medicine (ScotGEM) graduate, in her first year of foundation, recently won a national prize at the Scottish Intensive Care Society Resident Doctors meeting for her undergraduate final year Healthcare Improvement project. This article discusses this excellent achievement further. It is also a reminder to us that we can recognise opportunities for improvement in patient care throughout our careers.

The third focus on resident doctors is a story about the opportunity to undertake an out of programme experience. One of our doctors volunteered with the charity Mercy Ships in Madagascar. This item discusses this exciting and developmental experience.

We then move to focus on support for educators. The Trainer Development Collaborative (TDC) has responsibility for the development and delivery of training for trainers in both primary and secondary care. This section has updates for trainers especially GP trainers and an item on Trainer Development Conversations.

Are you a doctor currently working in medical education? Is this your first formal role teaching health professionals/students? Do you know or work with a doctor who is?

If you answered “yes”, there is information in the next item on a study that you may well want to participate in. There is an invitation to join a study aimed at supporting the development of future medical educators. In collaboration with the Academy of Medical Educators, the Association for the Study of Medical Educators and the General Medical Council, this research focuses on the experiences of doctors in Entry-Level Medical Education Roles (ELMERs).

We are delighted to help to promote Women in Leadership: Developing Tomorrow's Leaders, a hybrid conference in association Royal College Physicians Edinburgh in June. The programme includes a variety of talks, live interviews, and workshops. Please see the article for further details.

The Current Awareness section of The Knowledge Network has been refreshed. This is provided by NHS Librarians across Scotland and these bulletins offer recent literature which has been reviewed and curated to identify important, high-quality evidence. The next item discusses this further.

Following on the growing success of the 2024 conference, NES is delighted to confirm that it will once again be hosting the conference online over two days in April 2025: Thursday 24 and Friday 25.

For any queries please contact nes.conference@nhs.scot or visit Events

Remember to keep submitting articles or suggestions for content, take care and take breaks.

I hope you enjoy this edition. 

If you have work you would like to highlight in this newsletter, contact Scotland Deanery.

Professor Emma Watson
Executive Medical Director, NHS Education for Scotland