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Welcome to FiY1

A really warm welcome to our early graduating doctors. 

 

For those of you coming as FiY1 to the East of England, we are so grateful for you to have volunteered to start your F1 early. We appreciate all our medical students who provide both positive stimulus in normal circumstances, but also carry our hope as our future excellent colleagues.

In this time, I want to be clear that I understand that not all will either want to or be able to volunteer. That is absolutely OK. The most important thing any individual can do in this pandemic is to aim to stay well, physically and mentally. Many of us may have health conditions that currently preclude volunteering, have social/family responsibilities that need to be priorities. You may look at your confidence levels and think a later start would be better for you as an individual. You might welcome a break after working hard for finals. It is all OK! Keeping you and your family well is also vitally important. Please do not feel pressurised, or less valued if you don't volunteer to start as an FiY1 or in other ways. You do not need to justify your position. I will look forwards to meeting you in August as planned.

Regardless of your volunteering or not, we have made the decision to open many of our resources to both the home medical student graduates, and the August F1 starters. We don't know what our systems will look like in August, so it seems sensible to give everyone the benefit now. You are very welcome to book in to our learning opportunities as they crop up.

We wanted to ensure you had some additional resources. These are in the boxes below, and will be appearing on our web learning platform as we transition to this new way of working. The additional resources are not because we are concerned around your skills, we are absolutely reassured that you have the skills and knowledge required. Your medical school training has prepared you for this, and our medical school colleagues are confident in your abilities. Instead, this is because we are aware that there are lots of concerns from final year students who are progressed more rapidly into the work environment in unique circumstances. We wish to start as we mean to proceed, by supporting you and giving you the means to be prepared. These will also build your confidence as you enter the workplace, and you can discuss any of them in more detail with your foundation team, your supervisors and your buddies to make them relevant for you.

Please make maximal use of the VR licence as it expires end of JUNE. It is 5 key clinical emergency scenarios to practice for proficiency [ie as often as you like until you feel comfortable doing them] . It can be really useful to also see how your hospital guidelines and systems line up with the scenarios.

I am not a natural recorder of YouTube, but here is my welcome message to you all.

Our trusts will be planning how to support your transition from medical student to doctor in these unique times. We are working with your medical schools collaboratively, and within national guidance. I wish to assure you that we have teams of enthusiastic foundation supervisors, programme directors and education departments. You will be ‘buddied’ with 1-3 Foundation level doctors and a named consultant (‘clinical supervisor’) who are already in the trust who will support you. There will be a central person (the Foundation Training Program Director or named deputy) who will oversee all the FiY1 in your trust. Please talk to them around any worries you might have either before or after your starting. We are also providing our workplace and me zoomed teaching on how to look at wellbeing as a new doctor. It is a sharp transition always, a crisis of confidence is normal, and you absolutely can do this!

Centrally, the Foundation school and medical schools and the foundation schools and the trusts have a weekly meeting to ensure that best practice is shared, and any concerns can be escalated and managed appropriately.

We know that you have within you the resilience, adaptability and knowledge to do this. However, each of us will have moments when we need some additional support, be it a local smile and cup of coffee, or a little bit more. We are providing, in collaboration with trusts and our regional Professional Support and Wellbeing team [PSW] a variety of support for you and will be highlighting these to your FTPD or through further communications.

We are celebrating some of the teaching we have delivered through our workplace and me group and the @eoeremote at an educational conference. My huge congratulations to all our faculty for your enthusiasm and welcome for our FiY1.

 

Allocation to trusts - UPDATED May 18

Updated May 18th

We have agreed with UKFPO that we would like to support the late graduating med schools in being able to volunteer for FiY1. Some of our trusts are still at capacity, though where possible you will join the trust you start in august at F1. Our mental health trusts have also offered to support some FiY1 and keen to promote future careers in psychiatry, and also to promote knowledge of mental health in those having other career paths.

Edited update May 8th

We have told UKFPO we are full as for all but of handful of trusts they are either full or only accepting incoming F1, so it is hard for UKFPO to manage this degree of complexity, and we dont want to disappoint people allocated to us. Those already allocated we are finding placements for, and discussing how we could potentially review for the trusts that might accept how we would identify this for UKFPO.

Edited update 27th April/ May 2

Many of our EAFS trusts now say they have reached the maximum number of allocations of FiY1. They have been very grateful for the number of volunteers, but need to ensure that they can properly supervise their allocated numbers. This is now becoming the case in EBH as we welcome further FiY1 from London and other regions.

We have therefore told UKFPO that we are not accepting further allocations to EAFS, though have some candidates on reserve lists or waiting allocation, which we will allocate. This will likely be our last week for accepting incoming FiY1 into EBH. Thank you so much for volunteering.

We are still accepting and looking forwards to FiY1 joining the EBH foundation school, and in the survey for placements, some of the EAFS trusts  will be included but for incoming F1 only and some currently have no vacancy even for incoming F1. Currently Bedford, Harlow and East and North Herts in EBH are also full, but may accept incoming F1 and Colchester from EAFS is accepting all FiY1 as well as Southend and Luton in EBH. We will not keep this page 'live' for vacancies,.

We are very grateful to all the volunteering early graduated doctors. We want to support you, and are endeavoring to be transparent around our process.

I [Helen Johnson] have tried here to answer all the queries i have received, as it is not possible to answer every email in a timely fashion.

Early F1 arrival allocation

We plan that all trainees starting with us in August 2020 as F1 will be allocated to the appropriate acute trust from UKFPO recruitment. There may be some flexibility within this due to effects of Covid-19 on strategic planning, such that Cambridge and Papworth and merged trusts  may choose to deploy with the redeployed F1 and other staffing as appropriate.

We have reserved some posts at all our trusts for incoming F1 only, so that it may be that you hear some trusts are 'full' but this will be for local medical graduates, who will be offered other trusts aligned with their university.

Medical school location allocation

Those staying with our partner medical schools, we would hope to predominantly place according to their preference on UEA survey, or apprenticeship allocation for Cambridge as agreed with the partner medical schools,

The allocation will follow the allocation of the planned August F1 who have priority. Most will be then allocated to their F1 trust if this is also within EAFS.

We discussed and agreed the next step allocation process with our partner medical schools.

  • Cambridge had allocated their trainees to apprenticeship trust placements , and had notified the trusts and students of these allocations, therefore felt this would be a responsible model. 
  • UEA having completed their course instead performed a survey for us on trainees preferences.

We are also reviewing your preferences from the UKFPO/GMC links and whether you are due to start as an F1 in our region to determine the allocation . We have asked all trusts to provide accommodation wherever required, and queries about this need to be made to the trusts.

Once the nominated trusts allocations are full - and the FiY1 spaces may be different to those of medical school, and are adjusted to allow for the number of incoming FiY1 early starting their august placement, then volunteers will be allocated to trusts who do have vacancies.

We may offer via survey our additional trusts in EBH, who have accommodation available as alternative to the EAFS trusts and EBH trusts utilised by medical schools, as we oversee all of EoE. We do anticipate that we will be able to accommodate all volunteers within medical school partnership trusts.

This is a hugely complex piece of work with limited staff. We can only allocate to the number of F1, with little 'over' due to the statutory nature of foundation placements and GMC oversight. Therefore this means inevitably the allocation is our 'best option' allocation and we are unable to allocate all the applicants to the teaching hospitals. Please do not email the foundation school. All the information we hold is on our web page or the UKFPO/GMC pages linked below

Batch allocation and notification

Since we are allocating in batches, and have a very small staff for this, you may find that others know their allocations whilst you are waiting. We will not lose any allocations, all will be allocated.

Please do not contact us to check - we have a very minimal team! I will update when I think we have completed batches 1 and 2. [there are more batches to come from UKFPO]

We are letting the medical schools know when we have allocated.

Communications

If you are going to your F1 August trust you will be contacted by your trust around FiY1. We are not re contacting you unless there is a change to this plan as you have already had our welcome letter and resources.

If you are only doing FiY1 with us, we are emailing you do that you are welcomed, have our info and VR and know your placement At the end of each week we are updating our medical schools with the allocation lists.

Contracts

Accommodation, pay, hours, LTFT, rotas etc are all part of the trust process, and we will not be able to comment on these. Please directly ask the trusts. They do not have to appoint you, and you can withdraw from your allocation with them. We are not intermediaries in this process.

Unhappy with placement

You are unable to work as a doctor outside of this process on a provisional licence. If you are unhappy with your allocation please be assured that we have tried very hard to allocate everyone as well as possible, which is why we worked with your medical schools for a fair and transparent process, and assume within this they have already considered any exceptional circumstances. Your wellbeing is important to us, and that includes aiming to allocate you in a responsible manner. We would like to reassure you that you do not need to take up the placement and can either wait until all other placements are completed and we can review any vacancies, or decide to volunteer instead as a medical assistant at the trust of your choice. A medical assistant volunteer is also very welcomed and very valuable.

If you withdraw from your allocation, you need to formally notify the trust you were assigned to. You also need to formally notify us and go on our reserve list until we can accommodate you elsewhere, or resign fully from the FiY1 placements. This is a 'no fault' process. we were very grateful for your volunteering to start early, but if you change your mind on allocation, we will wish you all the best for your future F1 start.

Respecting those graduates that cannot or choose not to volunteer

We would also like to reiterate that although we are very proud of all graduates volunteering in these unique circumstances, if you or a person you live with are at a particularly high risk from a Covid-19 infection. then you should reconsider your volunteering. your wellbeing is really important, and staying physically and mentally well is a priority. By keeping well, you are absolutely helping. Do not feel under internal or external pressure to volunteer.

We will struggle to answer every email in a timely fashion, so please only do so if you have an exceptional need that should be considered. 

Future developments are unpredictable, and although we are aspirational in our endeavors, we cannot guarantee placements.

The GMC process: https://www.gmc-uk.org/news/news-archive/coronavirus-information-and-advice/provisional-registration?utm_campaign=1722647_COVID-19%20med%20students&utm_medium=email&utm_source=General%20Medical%20Council&dm_i=2SYE,10X7B,7HEE0S,3WFBB,1

The UKFPO page: https://foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/covid-19/

Induction, Alternatives to our usual Taught Programme and our Virtual reality Platform

Induction

  • HEE TEL has developed with UKFPO a cohesive curated resource for all FiY1 doctors commencing to be done as an induction before you begin.
  • Before you start, your trusts should be sending you their induction plan, and support plans for when you start.
  • We also suggest that you work through any of the resources below as well as VR modules, relevant foundation e-learning for health and script modules in the interim period before you start. We have identified some useful learning resources for you.

Central HEE EoE Training

Usually much of this training is either part of our 60 hour taught programme, or part of the trust induction. We are hoping to provide this on our learning platform. We have predominantly focussed on the wellbeing and team focussed elements of this programme, as theoretical knowledge has been gained at medical school, and is available online. Simulation is in part available through the VR access, and also through the shared simulation resources. We plan to deliver these live and interactive as well as recorded. Our learning platform is being developed, and we are all very new at this. Please understand we have the will and enthusiasm, but our skillset is slightly deficient.

  • Workplace and me: a guide to dealing with the stress and strains of being a doctor [see faq box to book into a session]
  • Human Factors Training [in planning]
  • International Medical Graduates welcome
  • Ask to See Patient. - likely to be delivered via your trust

Virtual Reality (VR) training

We have arranged for VR licences for all our home applicants that will start with us in August and will add you to this resource. We have negotiated for our incoming foundation doctors a 60 day trial of 5 scenarios. This will run in April and May only. The VR company has offered you technical support. The VR can be done both in VR but also 2D on appropriate laptops and desktops. The use of VR is to practice in safety to feel confident in managing common clinical situations. We are using your university email addresses as given to ORIEL to give you this access. Please check for this email to gain access to the resource, and also the 'how to set up' to download the software necessary.

Our general training pages contain a guide to using the VR

A company called in Simu Patient has also offered free access to their simulations. https://pages.insimu.com/insimu-free-university-access/ Our trust FTPD have been given the email of the contact to set this up for their Trust as you will need to log in with a Trust email suffix. This may therefore only be possible as and when you join an EoE trust, although your medical school may also have taken this opportunity for access.

Trust based teaching

Your trust will do an induction and run many of the induction teaching sessions. We have purchased a webinar platform, so that trust based generic teaching can restart and that this will gradually become available to you as your trust uploads materials. It also gives the options for trainees to create their own tutorials and share them outside of the foundation programme. A watch this space opportunity!

Foundation Learning Resources

 

Covid specific resources from the Royal Colleges which you might be interested to browse:

 

 

Other resources around COVID 19:

Workplace and Me teaching :applied wellbeing prepartion!

For all our FiY1, we are running this introduction to the workplace and balancing work and life. Our Papworth colleagues are providing administrative support for this, so it will be coming through a Papworth email address, but this is an HEE EoE initiative and open to all 

 

 

Firstly a very warm welcome to you from the EoE foundation school.  Many congratulations on your achievement and gaining provisional GMC registration.  We are all very much looking forward to welcoming you to our trusts across the region.  As part of the welcome we would like to offer you an interactive 1 hour online session delivered live on ‘Workplace & Me’.  These sessions will have up to 15 attendees and so please don’t delay and book your session today using the link :

'Workplace & Me' workshop - booking https://forms.gle/c2UTXm859hH874js8 

A 1 hour workshop on wellbeing in the workplace, particularly during these challenging times. These sessions will be hosted on Zoom but are as interactive as possible involving input from both the speaker and attendees to remind all that there is always help available, people to reach out to and resources and strategies one can use when our mental, physical health and wellbeing is faced with difficult stressful situations.

There is a handout sheet in the files section below.

This is much better done as an interactive group, but we do have it as a recorded video here: and also here as an interactive live recording.

VR and Core procedures simulation UPDATE VR now running until END JUNE

Virtual Reality (VR) training

Just another reminder! We have arranged for VR licences for all our home applicants that will start with us in August and will add you to this resource. We have negotiated for our incoming foundation doctors a 60 day trial of 5 scenarios. This will run in April and May only [now June!]. The VR company has offered you technical support. The VR can be done both in VR but also 2D on appropriate laptops and desktops. The use of VR is to practice in safety to feel confident in managing common clinical situations. We are using your university email addresses as given to ORIEL to give you this access. Please check for this email to gain access to the resource, and also the 'how to set up' to download the software necessary [a reminder of how to do that is in the files section as well as a link for feedback].

Our general training pages contain a guide to using the VR.

Core Procedures Simulation Library

Dr Lui our Sim Lead has very kindly worked with NWAFT to create simulation videos for you to in some part replace the time you may have had in the clinical skills lab in your professional practice week. Hopefully many of you will still get the opportunity to practice in the clinical skills lab - please talk to your FTPD. This should provide you with additional support as a resource. Thank you to the team for this.

Please note that:

  • These training materials have been made available for informational and educational purposes only.
  • The content of the training material has been produced to the best ability and knowledge of the authors.
  • The authors will therefore not be held responsible for any omissions or errors.
  • Your allocated trust may use different systems
  • The content provided DOES NOT constitute medical advice and is not intended to be a substitute for independent professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typical Foundation Scenarios Simulation Library

Dr Gooneratne, our FTPD at ESNEFT - Colchester has also very kindly worked with her team to create simulation videos for you to in some part replace the time you may have had in the clinical skills lab in your professional practice week. Hopefully many of you will still get the opportunity to practice in the clinical skills lab - please talk to your FTPD. This should provide you with additional support as a resource. Thank you to the team for this.

Please note that:

  • These training materials have been made available for informational and educational purposes only.
  • The content of the training material has been produced to the best ability and knowledge of the authors.
  • The authors will therefore not be held responsible for any omissions or errors.
  • Your allocated trust may use different systems
  • The content provided DOES NOT constitute medical advice and is not intended to be a substitute for independent professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COVID 19 simulations provided by our trusts

Important Disclaimer wrt the Covid SImulations

• These training materials have been made available for informational and educational purposes only.
• The content of the training material has been produced to the best ability and knowledge of the authors.
• The authors will therefore not be held responsible for any omissions or errors.
• The content provided DOES NOT constitute medical advice and is not intended to be a substitute for independent professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
• Information relating to Covid-19 is changing constantly. Therefore the information contained in these training materials should not be considered current, complete or exhaustive.
• All documents and policies may therefore be subject to change given the dynamic nature of the current pandemic.

Resources kindly shared from CUH:

Resources kindly shared from W Herts:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lWOJvPm2iRFz6ATtPj89qHR5jmDtD2Gr?usp=sharing

Please look at the videos on the google drive.

Resources Kindly shared from NWAFT:

 

Resources Kindly shared from ESNEFT

 

 

SuppoRRT return to practice webinars - useful resources and updates

SuppoRTT for doctors returning to work in the pandemic - Knowledge Refreshers

These are a series of webinars; knowledge refresher sessions for doctors who are coming back from a break from clinical practice into an unprecedented and uncertain period of clinical work. Although you are new to practice, you may find these very useful as an update to currently practiced 'in the field'. Anyone is allowed to register for these webinars, or you can watch recorded webinars at your leisure. 

All of the sessions are recorded and can be watched at a time to suit you (the list of previous webinars is at the bottom of this email).  Please allow at least five working days for editing:

https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/doctors-training/supporting-doctors-returning-training-after-time-out/supportt-digital-online-resources

 

Wednesday 8th April - SuppoRTT for doctors returning to work in the pandemic - Wellbeing - Take Care

REGISTER HERE: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/5915858426437/WN_mRH-QgAJS9y20MnrmqmCcg

14:00 - 15:00 - Take Care: Looking After Yourself so you can Look After Others - Anneliese Guerin-LeTendre

 

Wednesday 8th April – GI Emergency and ABG

REGISTER HERE: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/7915856529308/WN_cyQnmjDUSNe-u9jJuHbFwg

19:00 - 19:45 Gastrointestinal Emergencies - Dr Thomas Chapman
20:00 - 20:45 Arterial Blood Gas (ABG) - [Presenter TBC]

 

Thursday 9th April – Return to Clinical Work

REGISTER HERE: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/1115856527845/WN_xir2rIojTLKegyk-VRsMlQ

19:30 - 20:15 Imposter Syndrome - Kate Atkin PhD
20:00 - 20:45 Day 1 on the Ward - Dr Nell Freeman-Romilly

 

**JUST ADDED** Friday 10th April - Telemedicine Skills

REGISTER HERE: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/6815859324715/WN_k7J7ldc_SNqpKTe_JICYwA

19:00 - 19:45 - Telemedicine Skills: how to communicate remotely - Presented by Dr Tim Davis, a GP from South West England who is that region's GP SuppoRTT Champion. He has a strong interest in medical education at both an undergraduate and postgraduate level, and has significant experience with clinical communication via remote means.

 

All of the sessions are recorded and can be watched at a time to suit you (the list of previous webinars is at the bottom of this email).  Please allow at least five working days for editing:

https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/doctors-training/supporting-doctors-returning-training-after-time-out/supportt-digital-online-resources

 

Facilitated by Dr Lizy Townshend, Clinical Fellow for Health Education England's Supported Return to Training (SuppoRTT) program; Dr Aimee Manicom, Clinical Fellow for Quality improvement at Health Education England (Thames Valley); Dr Kirsty Smith, SuppoRTT Fellow at Wexham Park Hospital; and Ann Heath, SuppoRTT Manager for HEE Thames Valley.

 

You will be sent a link to join the event (on Zoom) by email nearer the time. Please feel free to listen along in noisy environments as questions and answers are typed in.

 

Please note that registration for each day will close one hour before the first session starts.

 

Free and funded with thanks by Health Education England, working across Thames Valley.

 

Previous Webinars:

 

Monday 23rd March – Wellbeing

Presented by Dr Caroline Walker of The Joyful Doctor, expert in doctors' wellbeing; and Dr Lizy Townshend, Clinical Fellow for Health Education England's Supported Return to Training (SuppoRTT) program.
We'll be discussing the concerns that people have about coming back from a break from clinical practice into an unprecedented and uncertain period of clinical work.

 

Thursday 26th March – ECG / AKI

19:30 - 20:15 - ECG interpretation - Dr Jamie Kitt
20:15 - 20:30 - Break and Top Tips Slideshow
20:30 - 21:15 - Acute Kidney injury - Dr Matt Bottomley

 

Friday 27th March - Death

19:30 - 20:00 - DNA CPR and Advance Planning - Dr Sarah Millette
20:10 - 20:40 - Recognising the Dying Patient & Palliation - Dr Catherine Ashton
20:50 - 21:30 - Verification, Certification and The Law - Dr Sarah Millette

 

Tuesday 31st March – The Acutely Unwell Patient

19:00- 19:45 - Approach to a patient with a high warning score - Dr Shefaly Patel

20:00 - 20:45 - Approach to a patient with shortness of breath - Dr Sunit Raja

 

Wednesday 1st April – Pregnancy & Respiratory

19:00 - 20:00 - Pregnancy and respiratory symptoms: approach and management - Dr Charlotte Frise

 

Thursday 2nd April – Radiology and Agitation

19:00 - 19:45 Chest X-Ray and CT Interpretation - Dr Sunit Raja
20:00 - 20:45 Approach to acute agitation or confusion - Dr Catherine Ashton.

 

Friday 3rd April - Neuro Emergency

19:00 - 19:45 Neurological Emergencies - Dr Krishna Chintapalli
20:00 - 20:30 Management of Status Epilepticus - Dr Krishna Chintapalli

 

Monday 6th April – ARDS and Transfusion

19:45 - 20:30 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) - Dr Samantha Jayaweera
20:45 - 21:30 Blood products & Transfusion - Dr Kieran Burton

Supervision, Buddying and Mentorship

Supervision and Support

The FTPD or a nominated senior educator will have overarching responsibility for the wellbeing and support for you. They will meet you at induction and provided a regular point of contact for you to discuss your wellbeing and ensure that you are supported.
They may draw on a group of intermediate support utilising other senior educators and the clinical sub deans and medical school leads. This network will be clarified with you by your FTPD and Medical Education Team. This is particularly the case in trusts where the FTPD lead is one of the skilled clinicians leading Covid-19 management.

Each of you will have a clinical supervisor, working within the team you are placed in, who will write an end of placement report. The named clinical supervisor may be a slightly looser relationship than in the past, as many teams are now larger structures, so in practice you will have a number of senior trainees and consultants working with you. You will be introduced to the team, and the nature of them means there will always be someone available to support and guide you.

We are providing our current F1 and F2 with buddying/mentorship support and training so that they can support you. we have asked our trusts to group FiY1 into 2-3 and pair with 2-3 F1/F2 so that you have a supportive group. Feel free to access the mentoring and buddying video below. This has been forwarded to all our FTPD and MEM.

All trusts have additional support structures for all of their staff, and these are also available to you.

 

 

Professional Support and Wellbeing

Wellbeing resources:

This is key at this difficult time. Even if you are self isolating it is important to keep moving to maintain fitness, strength and psychological well being. We have a list of apps that might help you over the coming weeks and months. These are being offered free to NHS staff members. 

Again, to reiterate, our Professional Support and Wellbeing service (PSW) has lots of information on its webpage, and additional staff to support you.

Other resources which you might find useful include:

Physical approaches to Maintaining Health & Wellbeing 
 
  • Down dog —this application has 3 apps for a variety of exercises. Please look up their HITT (interval) app, barre and yoga apps : https://www.downdogapp.com/healthcare 
  • Calm — a mindfulness, meditation and sleep app offer a free trial for Healthcare workers https:// blog.calm.com/health 
  • NHS practitioner help are offering regular Yoga and junior doctor common room sessions practitionerhealth.nhs.uk/upcoming-events​
  • Michael Farquhar's (sleep specialist at Evelina London) advice on sleep etc during Covid time can be found here:​
Welcoming our IMG - letter from our FTPD for overseas doctors

Dear Colleague

Welcome to the NHS and welcome to your own Trust. First of all, congratulations on passing the finals and also on securing a foundation job. These are fantastic achievements.

We are pleased to welcome you to the Health Education East of England Deanery. Striving for achieving excellence in performance and maximizing your potential I am privileged to be the Training Program Director for the IMGs.

As such I am invested in your development and success in the foundation program. The foundation years can be challenging and test your knowledge, skills and ability to adapt and cope under pressure. You will discover your own strengths and learn to change your attitudes and behaviours guided by your own values and principles. As educators we believe every job is what you make it! We know that learning opportunities abound at your hospital, and we hope you will participate in making every moment and every interaction count. From our perspective we assert “Training is patient safety for the next thirty years” and as such we will try to give you the best possible learning environment.

 

As doctors you have a complex job, there will be moments filled with every possible emotion! However, if you can remember to keep the patient at the centre of what you do and instil compassion, care and good communication, you will be ensuring that the patient’s journey is smooth and adding art to the science of practising Medicine.

 

My role is to help close the gap between your potential and your present abilities. I have no doubt that most of you will not only survive but actually thrive in the next two years as you identify your own values, forge relationships and understand the complexity and uncertainty of working in the NHS. There will be times when you feel exhausted and encounter situations when you feel you can’t go on. There will be times when you question the system and feel overwhelmed and even afraid. It is often your own expectations that will upset you. Harsh self judgement coupled with a genuine lack of experience and skill can be de moralizing and dent your confidence. This is normal.

While you have autonomy to practice there will be times when you need some dependency and for that you have an excellent support mechanism in the form of your Clinical Supervisor, Educational supervisor and FTPD. As your TPD, I am also available to talk to you and if possible, to guide you or signpost you in the right direction. Please remember the aphorism “Physician heal thyself” and look after your own work life balance. If possible, look out for your colleagues and at the first sign of “something amiss” please flag it up as appropriate. We are there to help and guide you.

 

HEEE has been a forerunner in setting up an excellent mentorship program especially designed for foundation doctors. This is the form of buddying with a senior who can then offer advice from ward craft to other simple queries.

HEEE has also designed a learning programme that can be easily accessed from the website.

At HEEE and indeed within the NHS, we are keen to listen to the trainee voice. Your opinion matters, so please feel free to speak up. The active and positive contribution of junior doctors can improve the organisation’s systems and enhance quality of care for patients.

 

 We know that there are some crucial skills that have a huge impact on your well- being, professional and personal development. We will be running masterclass workshops on building self- awareness of adaptability, learned optimism, gratitude, empathy, being proactive and resilient and fostering critical thinking skills. These sessions also promote mindfulness which helps to remain present and grounded  even in the midst of extreme stress, uncertainty and crisis.  Whilst the usefulness of these may not be immediately obvious, I assure you that at some points in your journey you will pause and reflect on some or all of these. Critical thinking and self- reflection can help you grow, achieve your potential and live a life of significance.

As William Osler said: “We are not here to get the most out of life for ourselves, but to try and make the lives of others happier!” This applies to the Medical profession more than any other! I challenge you to define your own top priorities in improving the experience of patients who cross your path! We are looking forward to welcoming you and supporting you to harness your full potential.

With best wishes

Ratna

Dr Ratna Makker

UEA support information for their graduates

Dear Graduates

We are proud to have been able to graduate you from Norwich Medical School and enable you to apply for provisional GMC Registration, and hence Interim Foundation Year 1 posts.

For those of you who are choosing to take up this opportunity, you will be entering the clinical workforce at a time when the NHS is under pressure as consequence of COVID-19 and all that this means for the provision of patient care and staff safety. Your new role may well involve exposure to difficult situations and experiences, and as new doctors it is particularly important that you are well supported in your transition from student to doctor. Across the UK, the Foundation Schools and Foundation teams in the Trusts will be working with undergraduate leads to provide a ring of support, mentorship and induction, as well as links to sources of support for wellbeing and mental health.

The Medical School also want to reach out to let you know of the continuing support available to you at this challenging time. Please do contact us through:

The following resource is also available:

Keep safe and well,

Best wishes

Alys

Professor Alys Burns

Clinical Professor in Medical Education

MBBS Course Director

FiY1 and eportfolio [HORUS]
  • All FiY1s will get access to the e-portfolio used at their FiY1 foundation school
  • Horus
    • Accounts will be created centrally for FiY1 doctors in England
      • Rounds 1-3 (and possibly 4) will be uploaded in one go by the middle of next week 
      • Any accounts that have already been created manually (we are aware that a few trusts have started to do this) will need to have their current placement ‘converted’ to FiY1
        • Guidance will follow once the functionality is complete
    • Your trusts will update these accounts with specific placement information manually
  • Requirements
    • Mandatory: Clinical Supervisor’s end of placement report
    • Optional: SLEs, reflections, Core Procedures, other supervisor meeting forms, etc
    • Not required: Form R, ARCP outcome form
  • ARCP
    • FiY1s will not have an ARCP while they are in an FiY1 placement
    • (Reminder) Any experience gained and recorded during FiY1 will count towards the requirements for F1 sign off (which for most will be in June 2021) – except for the time requirement. To complete F1 doctors must undertake 12 months (pro-rata) of F1 training.
  • FY1 e-portfolio movement
    • Many FiY1s will move to a different foundation to start their FY1 training
    • For some their F1 foundation school will use a different e-portfolio to the one they used during FiY1
    • Specific guidance will be published about what FY1s in this position should do to ensure any content they’ve created in FiY1 is available to their F1 supervisors and ARCP panel
      • In summary, doctors in this position will need to download content from their FiY1 e-portfolio and upload it to an/a series of “Additional Achievement” forms. They should discuss this content with their F1 educational supervisor.
    • FiY1 placements will need to be declared in the F1 Form R/SOAR (which for most will be completed in May 2021)
New FiY1s join the team – James Paget

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Some of our new junior doctors with James Paget Foundation Training Programme Director Mr Vamsi Velchuru.

After completing medical degrees, the next part of training as a doctor involves a two-year foundation programme - foundation year one (FY1) and foundation year two (FY2). This usually involves six different rotations or placements in medical or surgical specialties, to allow for the development of a range of clinical and non-clinical skills.

Many of those who are due to start their FY1 training in August have joined hospitals around the country in advance of their start date to help out and we have been delighted to welcome some of this next generation of medics to our team.

While the work they are doing now is a separate role to the FY1 posts they will start in August, and some will start at different hospitals, the programme has so far been mutually beneficial.
 
The hospital has gained already well trained and medically aware staff to support our team and the new doctors are gaining experience and the opportunity to learn from their predecessors.

One of the new doctors, Connie Tidd said; "We are mainly placed on a ‘base ward’ in the surgical or medical department that we are going to start on in August. This is good as we can get to know the basics of how each area is run. We also all have time on the hospital Emergency Assessment and Discharge Unit and on Ward 9 so that we have a variety of experiences.

“Myself and my peers have had overwhelmingly positive experiences. Many of us were due to be at the James Paget for our last placement of medical school, but now we’ve had the benefit of starting in the hospital when more beds than normal are empty, due to the COVID situation, and this has meant that we have been able to spend time learning from current foundation year doctors whose jobs we will be taking up in August.
 
“We are really lucky to already have access to teaching and we’ve already had induction which would normally happen during the first week of FY1.”

Mr Vamsi Velchuru, James Paget Foundation Training Programme Director, said; "I would like to thank Interim foundation year doctors for volunteering and helping the NHS in these times of need."

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