During August I have been working at the FMLM’s London office to gain a deeper understanding of medical leadership and management and to help FMLM engage with and expand its student membership.
In my first week at FMLM I produced a survey that was emailed to our student members asking for their thoughts on medical leadership and management at this early stage in the medical career. The response was reassuring with many members showing great interest in the work of the faculty, there was strong support for medical schools to do more to help medical student develop such skills. The responses from this survey will be used to produce the next document in the FMLM Transitions series detailing how medical leadership and management is relevant to medical students and how students can become more involved.
We are currently undertaking nationwide research on how the Medical Leadership Competencies Framework (MLCF) is being integrated into undergraduate curricula in order to assess the extent to which medicals schools are providing teaching and assessment of medical leadership and management.
Additionally I have assisted with the strategy and business plan for the faculty as we approach our second year of membership operation in October as well as attending the governance workshop which helped to shape the future of the organisation. I have attended meetings with the team and met many high profile individuals involved in medical leadership and management.
I have certainly learned a lot during my time at FMLM, it has helped me to understand why it is important to engage with this from an early stage and how important this will be in the ‘NHS of the future’ when I graduate. High quality leadership and effective clinical teams are proving to have just as great an effect on patient outcomes as the latest surgical techniques but still present a challenge to implement. Working for a membership driven organisation has been challenging and complicated at times but I have enjoyed working with the team to improve our product offering and prepare for the first annual conference in October.
All of the team at the FMLM have been very supportive and helpful during my internship and I am looking forward to being involved in projects as part of the medical student group and the wider organisations in the future.
Thomas Stringfellow
Summer Intern at the FMLM
3rd Year Medical Student at The University of Nottingham
mzytds [at] nottingham.ac.uk ()
