UKFPO Bulletin

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June Bulletin

World Blood Donor Day – 14 June 

Men’s Health Week – 9-15 June 

UK Windrush Day – 22 June 

Other national campaigns this month 

Action for happiness calendar – ‘Joyful June’ 

Introduction

Welcome to the June bulletin! 

I hope you are all well and that ARCPs went well for you as a foundation doctor or as a supervisor. 

Teamwork and leadership 

Eagle eyed regular readers of the bulletin will know that previously I have made a number of references to football. Depending on your interest or allegiance, you may or may not be pleased to know that my team had one of the best seasons in our history. I was thinking after the last match about why the team has been successful and how some of this applies to working as a doctor: 

1. Working towards the same goal (sometimes literally!) – it is very obvious during a football match that the team are all working with the same aim, either to score or to stop the opposition from doing so; I am not sure though that we are always clear on this when working as a medical team, and it may be that we need to be more explicit about what our absolute aim is for any type of work, whether that is a ward round, an MDT meeting about patients or when we are dealing with an individual patient or colleague. 

2. Respect for each other – despite them coming from a wide range of backgrounds, countries and cultures, it is clear that our players have great respect for their teammates and their abilities. This does not mean that they are all best friends, but they do appreciate everyone’s efforts with that respect being earned and helping the team to be much more cohesive. As a doctor, that respect is earned from your behaviour, your demeanour with patients and your attitude towards other members of the multidisciplinary team as well as other doctors. With shift patterns and inconsistency of team members, it can be more difficult to know those we are working with well, but we can make things better by ensuring that we introduce ourselves, ask about the role of others and be interested in them as people. 

3. Analysis, feedback and practice – I know that the management and team spend many hours analysing their performance and the players get huge amounts of feedback, which they have to be receptive to. I also know that they focus on what has been successful as well as mistakes that have been made; I think this is something we could do better in medicine, learning from what has gone well rather than always focusing on what has gone wrong. That is not to say that we should ignore mistakes, it is really important to learn and try to make sure they do not happen again, but equally reflecting on good work helps doctors to develop. The team also do huge amounts of practice, both individual skills/techniques and working together as a team. There is lots of literature about how important regular practice is (I recommend ‘Bounce’ by Matthew Syed as an easy to read explanation of the power of practice over talent); whilst some tasks may seem mundane, by doing them over and over again we become much better at them, especially if we receive feedback on our performance. 

4. Strong leadership – both the team management and players demonstrate really strong leadership skills, with empathy, good communication and clear instruction where necessary. Every doctor has some sort of role in leadership either at a local or national level, and it is really important that you develop your leadership skills as you go through your medical career, and apply them in whatever setting you are in. 

5. Individual performance versus team performance – when watching the highlights of a win, it does look like some individuals have done much more than others; however, when watching the whole match, it is clear that every team member has made a strong contribution to the team performance, and that the overall performance of the team is much greater than the sum of the individual talent on the pitch. Whilst every individual doctor should work to the best of their ability, no-one practices entirely in isolation and through working together as a team, much better outcomes will be achieved for patients and for you as doctors. 

As ever, look after yourselves and each other. 

Best wishes 

Dr Mike Masding, UKFPO National Clinical Director 

Reflection

Have you thought about what leadership means as a foundation doctor? Have a look at our previous webinar about Foundation doctors and leadership. 

How do you ensure you embed good and effective teamwork during your placements? 

How do you give and receive feedback? What do you appreciate about feedback in your practice? Have a look at our ‘giving feedback’ webpage for ideas and guidance. 

Spotlight on educational resources 

Report published – Shaping Allergy Training in the UK Foundation Programme: a national survey 

BSACI surveyed foundation doctors in England in late 2023 regarding their experiences of training opportunities in allergy. They published the Shaping Allergy Training in the UK Foundation Programme: a national survey report in February 2025. 

Webinars

Coming up 

A webinar led by current foundation doctors about preparing for F1 and F2, exploring the different pathways and opportunities available during foundation training will be held at 18:00-19:00 on Tuesday 22 July 2025. Further details and the joining link will be announced shortly.  

All previous webinar recordings are available on our webinars webpage.

If there are any specific topics you think we have missed or you wish for us to cover in our educational webinar series, please send your suggestions to foundation.educationandsupport@nhs.net 

Opportunities and events 

F2 Career Destination Survey 2025 

The UKFPO has run an F2 Career Destination Survey (CDS) since 2010 – have a look at the insightful reports from these surveys on our Reports webpage. The CDS had to be discontinued during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and we were finally able to bring it back last year, in 2024, by piloting a new, shorter version. We are analysing the results and will publish the report soon.  

We are running the survey again this year – it will be open for all F2 doctors to complete between Monday 16 June and Thursday 14 August 2025. The link will be shared with all eligible doctors on 16 June. If you are an F2 doctor, please take 5 minutes to fill in this important survey! You will receive a confirmation of completion, which you can include in your e-portfolio. 

Oriel user research – invitation for expressions of interest! 

The next phase in the development of a new national platform for recruitment to medical, dental, pharmacy and healthcare science in the UK has begun. If you would like to provide feedback on Oriel and shape how this service could be improved in the near future, please see this page for further information and to register your interest in taking part in the research: https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/news/oriel-alpha-exercise-launched. The team are looking for participants from a wide variety of cohorts, including medical students, potential UKFP applicants and foundation doctors. 

Humans of the Foundation Programme 

See our Humans of the Foundation Programme webpage for details of this exciting creative writing initiative, including the submission form for articles of your own, and published articles. 

New articles published this month: 

Elearning for healthcare update

Review the May 2025 elfh update