Health Education England West Midlands Foundation Year One Prize Award 2020
Open Award
The winner of the 2020 Foundation Year One Open Award is Dr Kishan Karie & Dr Melanie Suseeharan with their joint submission 'You will never know until you start FY1'.
What made you decide to enter the award?
We decided to enter this award after our experiences during our foundation year which were impacted by the covid pandemic. We both found reflecting was a therapeutic and liberating process, and writing down what we shared with each other to be an impactful hobby during such a tumultuous year. What especially stood out, were the lessons we learnt in our year and we realised the value of knowing them when we were fresh eyed medical students about to embark on the journey as junior doctors. We wanted to produce something that could give insight to incoming FY1s on the what we had learnt during this extraordinary year.
What was the topic for your entry?
Our essay is titled “You will never know until you start FY1”, this encompasses the lessons we learnt during out FY1 year, with particular focus on our experiences with death and end of life care.
What would you say to anyone interested in entering?
We would recommend anyone, alone or with a colleague to take some time and write about your experiences, you never who would benefit from you sharing your own stories. We didn’t expect to win but it has been a great surprise, it’s enhanced our portfolios for specialty application and encouraged us to continue to write! If anyones thinking about entering we would encourage you to just do.
Compassion Award
The winner of the 2020 Foundation Year One Compassion Award is Dr Anna Phillips with her submission 'A Lession in Compassion'.
What made you decide to enter the award?
When COVID first hit, I was an F1 doctor working on Intensive Care. As cases started to flood our unit, I was acutely aware that we were witnessing the sharp end of a major historic event. I started writing a diary in an attempt to capture the experience of working in our busy ICU, but it became difficult to maintain as our workload increased. It was always my intention to put my account into writing, so when I saw this competition, it was the perfect motivation to finally sit down and reflect.
What was the inspiration for your entry?
My reflective piece, entitled 'A Lesson in Compassion', detailed my experiences in my first year of work as a doctor and what working through a global pandemic taught me about compassion.
What would you say to anyone interested in entering?
Writing this reflection helped me to process a lot of challenging experiences from my F1 year, allowing me to recognise and enjoy all the positive change and personal growth that has come from it. In that way, it was a really useful exercise that I would encourage anyone to do - especially after a year like this one!
It has also been a great addition to my portfolio and has led to many new opportunities. For example, my essay has been used as a teaching tool for our deanery's GP trainees during their VTS training. I have also been offered a spot to present at the HEE Educators’ Conference later this year. The £200 was an added bonus!
Page Updated on: 15 July 2021