Becoming a clinical fellow

Having been a trainee for 6 years, I feel that I have lost my voice. No one seems interested in what I have to say, not least the managers and administrators of the trusts I have worked with. All I'm asked of is to put my head down, grit my teeth and just get on with it. "Just get on and do the job you were employed to do", as I once had the 'privilege' of being told. 

But that's just it. I'm not employed to just to see patients in clinic, review test results and hold the laparoscopic camera in theatre. I'm employed as a trainee doctor - a doctor who aspires to be a future specialist and champion for patients. How am I going to achieve that if I don't speak up?

I am somewhat comforted by the fact that I am not alone. Most trainees I've ever spoken to feel the same; regardless of grade, regardless of specialty. It is a shame, especially since we have so much to offer – in way of enthusiasm, innovation and by virtue of rotating placements, seeing which systems work and which don’t.

This is one of the main reasons I have applied to the Clinical Fellow Scheme. I want to learn how to change things for the better, but to do that, I’ll need to learn how the system works. I also want to take the opportunity to learn about leadership and healthcare management and this scheme offers me the amazing opportunity to meet and learn from the current leaders in the NHS.

Meeting with other fellows of the scheme has been particularly interesting. We each have individual ambitions but all share a common goal – we want to instigate change within the NHS to improve the quality of patient care. We are excited about the skills and opportunities available within the Clinical Fellow Scheme that will ultimately help us become good clinical leaders.

Jean Wang, Clinical Fellow, Health Education England

Some more views from the clinical fellows: 

As a paediatrician, I have the best job in the world, and every day really is different (and normally pretty chaotic!)  The one thing that is constant though is the frustration of translating a good idea into actual change.  Sometimes, no matter how motivated you are, time just isn’t long enough, or your influence great enough to drive a project through, meaning patients and staff miss out.  I am hoping that the skills learned this year will enable me to be successful at improving things for my patients and colleagues, at local and national levels.

Felicity Taylor, Clinical Fellow, NHS England

Few trainee doctors haven’t sat in their coffee room frustrated with the way things are done wherever they are working, and thought ‘I wish I could improve this’. However, knowing how, who and what to influence is not normally within medical training programmes which are dominated by the needs of examinations, training and service provision. As a senior anaesthetic registrar, I began to feel concerned that if I didn’t do something about this soon, I would begin my consultant career lacking in vital leadership and management skills.

For me, the clinical fellow scheme seemed to be an ideal way of being able to step off the treadmill and get an overview of the system. I hope to develop my own leadership skills and also the knowledge of how to influence change and improve care for patients.

I hope that by the end of the year I will have gained leadership and management skills and knowledge, and a network to take back to my clinical career.

Marc Wittenberg, Clinical Fellow, NHS England/BMJ

My motivation for applying to the CFS scheme was partly out of frustration. There was a “scout hut” in the middle of the car park where the Consultants of the hospital I used to work at would hold their meetings. There was never a trainee present at these meetings and I always felt that the trainees would have a lot to contribute to the running of the hospital. This year I want to learn how to be constructively influential in order to bring about positive change that improves the experience of patients. I hope that I will be able to use the skills I learn this year in my chosen clinical specialty (Plastic Surgery) so that I can become an excellent clinician, leader and manager.

Saahil Mehta, Clinical Fellow, Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists

I am interested in improving health education among patients and also introducing innovative technology to aid health professionals in diagnosing disease. I am well aware that the culture of the NHS and the way in which health professionals work needs to change and in this way improve patient outcomes. I hope during this year on the CF scheme and my placement in Public Health England (Reference Microbiology), I will have the opportunity to engage with a variety of people and organisations to help me work on projects which directly focus on this.

Michelle Griffin, Clinical Fellow, Public Health England