“Learning together for clinical excellence”
It’s conference season and Sarah Allsop reflects on the AOME-INHWE conference held recently at Cardiff University.
Centre for Student Life, University of Cardiff
The joint conference between the Academy of Medical Educators (AOME) and the International Network for Health Workforce Education (INHWE) was held last week in the beautiful city of Cardiff and hosted by Cardiff University in the Centre for Student Life.
Over the three days, the presentations and workshops spanned a huge diversity of topics, but centred around the values and culture that we need to support excellent patient care through working together. One of the frustrations of conferences is that due to the parallel nature of the scheduling, you can’t always get to everything that you really want to see. The flip side of this, is that you might end up attending something you didn’t expect, which turns out to be really interesting and useful. I love the fact that you always make new connections and learn something new at conferences.
A few of the talks really stood out for me during the conference.
- The Welsh Minister for Health and Social Services, Eluned Morgan MS, highlighted the importance of including educators in workforce planning to tackle the challenges of healthcare in Wales and across the UK.
- Professor Josie Fraser, Deputy Vice Chancellor for the Open University, talked about the value and outcomes of using enquiry-based learning, in particular team-based learning in interprofessional learning groups. She highlighted the value in students debating together and understanding each other’s viewpoints better, and learning how to work together, building confidence and respect.
- Professor Jacky Hayden CBE spoke about the importance of planning for the future, and critical to this is investing time to develop the medical education leaders of tomorrow. Importantly she talked about creating the space to develop these skills. Healthcare education leaders need to drive the quality of standards not only in higher education institutions, but also in the healthcare providers within the NHS. Education leaders have the power to influence culture, and the importance of compassion and trust are hugely important in developing others.
Bristol Medical School was also represented at the conference with both staff and students presenting work including:
- ‘The lost decades’ a workshop led by BMERGs Dr Sarah Allsop with Professor Colin Macdougall from Warwick Medical School on how to problem solve some of the challenges ahead for medical educators
- ‘Enhancing Anatomy Teaching Through Peer-Run, Flipped Classroom Sessions’ poster presented by Bristol medical students Mr Adam Mistry and Ms Shraddha Sriraman
- ‘Inspiring the next generation to innovate in healthcare through a cross-faculty student innovation programme’ presented by Bristol medical student Miss Somto Okoli with students from Cardiff Medical School
Colleagues from our Bristol NHS Academies also presented including:
- ‘Developing a tailored teaching program to support international medical graduates’ presented by Dr Laura Kyle, Dr Eleanor Pilsworth, Dr Bethan Arnold, Dr Malvika Subramaniam, and Dr Amy Whitworth from Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton
- ‘Celebrating Trainee Success Drives Learning and Boosts Morale’ – Unanimously positive experience of a departmental teaching session driven by trainees’ case presentations of personal excellence presented by Miss Robyn Brown and Mr Anthony Gould from Great Western Hospital, Swindon
The whole conference was extraordinarily uplifting and a reminder of the huge enthusiasm and energy of the medical education community.
The full programme and abstract book can be viewed at https://www.medicaleducators.org/Learning-Together-for-Clinical-Excellence-2023
I would recommend any aspiring and current educators to consider attending future AOME and INHWE events and looking at the professional standards and support available from these associations.
Find out more about AOME: https://www.medicaleducators.org/Why-join-AoME
Find out more about INHWE: https://inhwe.org/
Acknowledgement: Sarah Allsop (blog author) would like to acknowledge the funding grant awarded by the Bristol Medical School to support her presentation at this conference in June 2023.
Dear Sarah,
I can’t tell you how pleased the Academy’s organising committee was to read this review of our conference. We’ve shared with our INHWE colleagues too. Thank you very much and we’re delighted you got so much out of the event.
Best wishes,
Tony Carlisle (AoME)
Thank you Tony, we look forward to attending more AOME and INHWE events in future