During her UKFPO Fellowship, Dr Jie Fei Lau (UKFPO Fellow 2024/25) developed Humans of the Foundation Programme (HOFP), a national storytelling and creative-expression initiative designed to showcase the experiences of foundation doctors across the UK. The project, inspired by Humans of New York, aimed to explore and celebrate the training journey of foundation doctors by offering a platform for reflection through written narratives, poetry, artwork, and other creative outputs.
Discover the published stories and 2024-25 training year e-book on the Humans of the Foundation Programme webpage.
Why Humans of the Foundation Programme?
Foundation doctors’ training journeys are marked by transitions, stress, evolving identity, and varied clinical settings. These human experiences are often under-represented in standard curricula or evaluation formats. Humans of the Foundation Programme was conceived to provide a creative, reflective, and inclusive platform for foundation doctors to express themselves beyond medical metrics, and to foster connection across the programme.
Approach
Foundation doctors were invited to submit reflective narratives, poetry, artwork and other creative expressions under four categories:
- Transitioning into foundation training (for example, moving into foundation training, role shifts)
- Sharing best practice / training opportunities (practical lessons, tips, innovations)
- Remote and Rural (experiences in geographically isolated settings)
- Medical Humanities (exploration of identity, narrative, meaning in medicine)
Submissions were curated and published on the UKFPO website, monthly bulletin, social media platforms. Published work was collected into an e-book, which was published at the end of the training year.
Project purpose and impact
- To amplify foundation doctor voices: Create a platform that celebrates and shares the diverse lived experiences of foundation doctors across the UK, ensuring that a range of perspectives and contexts are represented.
- To foster reflection and connection: Encourage foundation doctors to reflect on their experiences and create an opportunity to engage empathetically with the human side of foundation training.
- To preserve and grow contributions: Establish a lasting structure for ongoing contributions, enabling future cohorts to continue curating and expanding the Humans of the Foundation Programme collection.
- Lasting impact: By publishing these stories on the UKFPO website, the project has contributed to a more holistic understanding of foundation training, written by foundation doctors.