UKFPO Bulletin: 19th May 2021

Welcome to another bulletin.  It’s rather long so I’ll keep my editorial short.

The main message to get across is that ARCPs are approaching. To the Foundation Doctors: I urge you to ensure your e-portfolio is complete by the end of May. Failing to do this may delay your sign off. If your supervisor hasn’t contacted you for a meeting then contact them. To the supervisors reading this I would say please review your FD’s e-portfolio and ensure it is complete; ensure you have a meeting with them in your diary and that you complete the relevant report. Also, in completing the report please write comments about why you have made a decision – it really helps your colleagues at ARCP panels. Finally, I would remind all ES to sign off the curriculum too.

FY2 Trainees – Evaluation of Improving Surgical Training

Health Education England has commissioned an independent evaluation of the Improving Surgical Training (IST) pilot. This pilot is being run in selected sites to explore the effect of new competence-based, run through surgical training programmes in selected surgical specialties. As part of the evaluation, SQW (the evaluation research partner) wish to find out about how the IST pilot is affecting Foundation Year 2 trainees with an interest in a surgical career.

If you are an FY2 trainee and would like to participate, we would really appreciate your feedback. The survey can be accessed by following this link: IST FS2 Survey 2021 or by scanning the QR code below. 

Survey completion takes about 10 minutes. It is confidential and anonymous. Its findings will be used as part of the evidence to evaluate IST and agree the next phase of surgical training. 

The survey is now open and will close at 5pm on Tuesday 1st June 2021. 

Further information about the survey, and how your data will be used and stored is provided when you start the survey. If you have any queries, please contact the Medical Education Reform Programme team via email merp@hee.nhs.uk

UKFPO Call for Foundation Doctor Case Studies

To help prepare new F1 doctors for life in foundation training, we are requesting case studies from current foundation doctors for the UKFPO website. Have a read of our new case studies, submitted by current foundation doctors, for an idea of what this can look like, but we are open to ideas on what aspects of foundation training you would like to write about. Please contact Ellie at ellie.walsh@foundationprogramme.nhs.uk to discuss your ideas or request more information. Thank you!

Health Education England – Diagnostic Imaging Project

The HEE Global Engagement Directorate is advertising volunteer opportunities in diagnostic imaging in Uganda. This is part of a pilot project and may appeal to foundation trainees with experience in diagnostic imaging. There are opportunities for both long and short term volunteering overseas, and also virtual UK based volunteering. For more information, please visit the Global Engagement page.

e-Learning for Healthcare – Building a New Zero NHS

The Environmentally Sustainable Healthcare Programme contains a 30 minute module called Building a New Zero NHS, which would help foundation doctors to meet their learning outcome on “sustainable use of finite resources”, as well as inform them of NHS England’s “Net Zero” carbon emissions plans. The module can be accessed via the e-Learning for Healthcare website.

Foundation e-Learning Programme – May 2021 Update

The Foundation e-learning programme has been developed specifically for Foundation doctors by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges in partnership with Health Education England e-Learning for Healthcare (HEE e-LfH) and is approved by UKFPO.

Do you need to complete parts of the curriculum on your e-portfolio which you do not cover in day-to-day practice? If so, why not try some of our free e-learning mapped directly to the Foundation Professional Capabilities (Training Outcomes) in the 2016 Foundation Curriculum.

Some sessions in the e-LfH Foundation e-learning programme include Good Handover Practice, Ward and Social Services and Team Working and Patient Safety.

You can sign in to the e-learning with your login supplied by e-LfH at any time during your foundation training.

Horus and Turas link to e-LfH e-learning sessions from the FP Curriculum and are therefore accessible to all trainees, making it quicker and easy to access the appropriate session linked to the curriculum.

Events, Information and Opportunities from External Partners

Welsh Obstetric Medicine Society

The Welsh Obstetric Medicine Society is a collection of Welsh Medical and Obstetrics & Gynaecology trainees who are enthusiastic about the health of pregnant women and their babies. In each of our specialties, we come across pregnant women whose care is complicated by medical problems. With the advent of this group, they hope to create a local network to allow interdisciplinary discussions and a forum for learning for anyone interested in maternal or obstetric medicine. With the advent of this group, we hope to create a local network to allow interdisciplinary discussions and a forum for learning for anyone interested in maternal or obstetric medicine.

To kickstart the events calendar, the Welsh Obstetric Medicine Society would like to welcome foundation doctors to their first virtual event, “Vasculitis in Pregnancy” on the 24th May 2021 at 18.30-20.00 via Microsoft Teams.

Medical speakers: Dr Bethan Phillips (Specialist Registrar Rheumatology) and Dr Melanie Nana (Clinical Fellow in Obstetric Medicine)

Obstetric speaker: Dr Claire Hill (Specialist Registrar in Obstetrics and Gynaecology

This will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session: we have invited Mr Henry Cole (Consultant Obstetrician) and Dr Usha Srinivasan (Consultant Rheumatologist) to join the speakers. In order to maintain case confidentiality, please send an email to welshobstetricmedicine@outlook.com with your name, training grade and @wales.nhs.uk or university email address, so that we may send you the link.

Royal College of Pathologists Foundation Taster Event – 23rd June 2021

All foundation doctors are invited to the joint RCPath/BDIAP Foundation Taster Event 2021. This is an exciting opportunity to explore pathology and see what the career has to offer. This virtual programme will be delivered with a mixture of specialty-specific sound bite videos from a variety of consultants and trainees (sent to attendees a few days before the meeting), followed by a live virtual session held on Wednesday, 23rd June at 7pm via Zoom (approximately 1.5 hours).

If you have been considering applying for specialist training in pathology and would like to know more about the different specialties, make sure you register for this event for free to explore the exciting opportunities that our pathology specialties have to offer you.

Belfast Eye Conference – 3rd and 4th July 2021

Foundation trainees are invited to attend the first ever virtual Belfast Eye Conference, hosted by Queen’s University Belfast. Here you will meet like-minded healthcare students, early-stage doctors and early-career vision scientists from around the world who are equally fascinated by clinical opthalmology and vision related research. The conference is free of charge to attend.

The conference will provide the stage for speakers who will give broad and varied perspectives on eye related disease. Consultant ophthalmologists will give clinical talks relating to their sub-specialty, and members of the multi-disciplinary team will discuss how they support eye health. Vision science is a strong and active research field, particularly in Northern Ireland. We are excited to showcase cutting edge vision related research from scientists at Queen’s University Belfast.

You will also have an opportunity to showcase your vision related research, in oral and poster formats. You may have completed a vision related case study or audit, summer studentship, intercalated project, special study module work or PhD. Whatever the level, submit an abstract today! The deadline for submissions is 15th June 2021.

To register, view the programme or download an abstract submission form, please visit the Queen’s University Belfast website.

British Society of Medical Dermatology (BSMD) – Video Prize

The BSMD is launching a new prize for a patient education video on a topic related to Medical Dermatology. Prizes include a Medical Dermatology textbook as well as the opportunity for a credited video on the official BSMD YouTube channel for the winners. There will be two streams of prizes open to undergraduate medical students and foundation doctors studying or working at a university or hospital in the UK or Ireland. The video must not exceed 5 minutes. 

The deadline for submissions is 6th August 2021. For more information, please visit the BSMD website and view the information flyer.

DEMEC Conference – 6th and 7th December 2021

For the 4th time, the leading organisations in medical education and training across the UK come together to provide highly successful joint national UK Medical Education conferences. The conference will be delivered both face to face and virtually. DEMEC welcomes everyone involved in medical education including medical students and trainees.

Poster abstract submissions are strongly encouraged and are eligible for awards. The deadline for poster submissions is 23:59 on Wednesday 30th June. Please submit your poster on the DEMEC poster submission page.

To register your attendance, please visit the DEMEC registration page. For more information, please review the event flyer.

Mind the Bleep

Mind the Bleep supports foundation doctors with free content on clinical, employment & career topics. Get in touch if you’re keen to boost your portfolio e.g. lead a national QIP. If you’re a new FY1, Mind the Bleep are providing weekly webinars to help you! Mind the Bleep is created by Dr Akash Doshi, a medical registrar who loves teaching & supporting foundation doctors. He’s always happy to be contacted to offer help & support to any one. 

Eating Disorders Training for Foundation Doctors and Medical Students

This training was developed in response to the PHSO investigation into avoidable deaths from eating disorders as outlined in recommendations from the report titled Ignoring the Alarms: How NHS Eating Disorder Services Are Failing Patients (PHSO, 2017). It is the result of collaboration between Beat, Health Education England and the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Faculty of Eating Disorders and is designed to ensure that all medical students and foundation doctors are trained to understand, identify and respond appropriately when faced with a patient with a possible eating disorder. The training can be accessed via the Beat Eating Disorders website.