Foreword

Welcome to this month’s newsletter, it has been a busy time for everyone and I am very grateful to all of you who have reached out with stories to share – your stories  are inspirational and it is fantastic to be able to showcase your work; please keep them coming.

It has been my honour to meet with different groups of doctors in training this month and I hope the invitations to spend time with you keep coming!

Most of you will be entering the ARCP season, and I know that can be a challenging time. For the majority this process will go without a hitch and you will heave a sigh of relief until next time, for a small number of trainees the experience can feel as if you are under the microscope.  The ARCP is an opportunity for you to demonstrate the competencies you have achieved in your training programme, and where some competencies have not been reached you can be given other opportunities or more time to achieve them. We continue to work in partnership with the other UK nations to ensure that the ARCP process take place in a fair, transparent and supportive manner, and are always happy to receive feedback on how we can make improvements.

In this month’s newsletter you will be able to click the links and relive (or experience for the first time) the sessions that were delivered in the excellent NES education conference.

We also take the opportunity to celebrate the winners of the NES medical directorate awards - congratulations to all of you, we are grateful for all you do.

Dr Cara Bezzina, Teaching Fellow and GP in NHS Highland shares the innovative work she delivered using social media to inspire students and trainees to get involved in quality improvement in the “be the change campaign”.

It is fitting that the following article is an excellent feature on the work designed by doctors in training and delivered by the multidisciplinary team is an inspiring example of what can be achieved with an aim, a plan and a team! What could you do where you work to make a difference?

We also have a contribution from our bereavement team with a new animation to help with Death Certification and the Bereavement quarterly newsletter.

Lastly, we are promoting a Scotland-wide survey to understand the “pull-push” factors that drive doctors and trainees away from a place or draw them to a new location. 

There is much more in the newsletter, with exciting news about study leave budgets and wellbeing work as well as useful links to educational materials that will hopefully make your work easier to do.

A reminder: the GMC consultation on the updates to Good Medical Practice, is still open and I would encourage all of you to have a look and if possible to participate in the process. Our consultation on the future of Good medical practice 27042022 - GMC (gmc-uk.org)

If you have work you would like to highlight in the newsletter drop us an email to Medicine@nes.scot.nhs.uk  and we would be delighted to share.

As I mentioned in the last newsletter as those who take care of others it is essential you take care of yourself please ensure you are able to take some down time as we come into the summer months. I look forward to meeting many more of you over the coming months.

Dr Emma Watson
Executive Medical Director, NHS Education for Scotland