Dr Marina Soltan - Foundation Doctor 2016 - 2018
I am a foundation year two trainee, training at Health Education
West Midlands North. It is a fantastic place to train with a lot of choice for
undertaking clinical rotations and numerous opportunities to engage in
teaching, leadership and management and research.
I was allocated to my first choice rotations for FY1 and FY2 at
Queen’s Hospital in Burton, which has been a highly supportive training
environment. In my FY1 year, I undertook clinical placements in General
Surgery, Paediatrics, and Acute Medicine. In my FY2 year, I chose to
undertake clinical placements in Gastroenterology, an Academic rotation and
General Practice. Currently, I am doing Gastroenterology and I look forward to the
Academic rotation and the rotation in General Practice. The placements have
been thoroughly enjoyable and have taught me the generic skills and
competencies required.
The supportive training environment in West Midlands North has
provided encouragement for trainees to boost other important extracurricular
skills including: teaching, research, leadership and management, and quality
improvement. As an FY1, I ran a highly successful teaching programme for
the local medical students from Leicester University and as an FY2 have a
formal teaching role teaching medical students from the University of Leicester
and Physicians Associates from the University of Wolverhampton as an Honorary
Lecturer. Furthermore, as an FY1, I successfully completed a Masters (MMedSci)
with distinction which boosted my experience in medical education, research and
research methods. Furthermore, I was awarded a BMJ Clegg Scholarship and
subsequently became a Clinical Editorial advisor, writing and reviewing content
for the prestigious, peer-reviewed, international journal, sBMJ and gaining
experience of sitting on the BMJ research manuscript meetings. The supportive
environment in Health Education West Midlands also meant that I was able to
take an active role in the Medical School’s Council SJT examination such that I
have served as a panel member on the SJT writing and review group.
Furthermore, I have had the privilege of being involved in the GMC’s Corporate
Strategy group, GMC User Group, the GMC Health and Disability review group and
look forward to attending a further event at the GMC looking at the outcomes
for graduates.
Training in the West Midlands North has given me opportunities
to boost my research skills through quantitative lab based research and
qualitative educational research and present this work in oral and poster
presentations locally, nationally and internationally. Moreover, as a
West Midlands North Trainee, I have had opportunities to deepen my leadership
and management expertise through my election as the foundation doctor
representative for West Midlands North during my FY1 year and subsequently
again during my FY2 year. I have had the opportunity to serve on the
Foundation Programme Committee at the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.
I have also had an active role in trust based quality improvement projects and
audits including looking at IV fluid prescribing and the nationally recognised
red to green service improvement initiative building on previous audit skills
acquired at medical school whilst auditing the quality of assessments of
diabetic foot ulcers and the mortality in patients with diabetes after a lower
extremity amputation.
Gaining experience in teaching, research, quality improvement
and leadership and management has made me a well-rounded trainee and prepared
me well to pursue a clinical academic training pathway and become
an excellent, well-rounded clinician.
Dr Alexander Crichton and Dr Eleanor Burke - Foundation Doctors 2017 - 2019
Our F1 Doctors from UHNM NHS Trust on Vimeo.
Page updated: 29 January 2018