awards – Bristol Medical Education Research Group

BMERG News: Reflection on winning an ASME education award

Posted on June 14, 2024June 18, 2024 by sarah.allsop

In this blog, Dr Grace Pearson reflects on her recent TASME Mentorship Prize from the Association for the Study of Medical Education. She describes how this award has supported her work in collaboration with the University of Zimbabwe Medical School.

Dr Grace Pearson with Dr Zaranyika, junior doctors and medical students working in the Faculty of Medicine in Harare (March 2024)

I was absolutely delighted to receive the 2024 TASME Mentorship Prize, which I’ve put towards my ongoing collaboration with the University of Zimbabwe Medical School and Parienyatwa Hospital in Harare.

The population of Africa is ageing faster than any other continent, yet teaching in ageing and geriatric medicine is lacking in many countries. In response to the Zimbabwe Healthy Ageing Strategy, and with the mentorship of Dr Trust Zaranyika, we are working to implement innovative undergraduate and postgraduate training in geriatric medicine at UZ, which will equip their workforce with the knowledge and skills required to care for their growing population of older people.

I was privileged to visit Dr Zaranyika, junior doctors working in the Faculty of Medicine, and medical students (all pictured) on a recent scoping visit to Harare in March 2024. I was touched by their warm welcome and invigorated by their keen interest in geriatric medicine.

To ensure that any resources generated are authentic, applicable, and sustainable, I attended ward rounds, clinics, meetings, and teaching to understand when, where, and how training in geriatrics might ‘fit’. It was a pleasure to be part of such a supportive and rich learning environment, where teams regularly meet together to discuss clinical cases, and I was myself reminded of how best to incorporate teaching moments into every day clinical practice.

It was my pleasure to pilot teaching on ‘core’ geriatrics topics, such as frailty, falls, and delirium, and I found it refreshing to revisit my own ‘bread and butter’ from the ground up. I made so many friends in such a short time, and I really can’t wait to return to Harare to develop and implement more teaching.

More about the TASME mentorship award:

The TASME mentorship award provides funding for healthcare professions trainees to travel to meet mentors, to develop a mentoring relationship that will support their professional development as a medical educator. The application is a short self-nomination form, consisting of three questions: 1. Can you tell us about your career as an educator so far? 2. How do you plan to spend the award? 3. How might this impact your career as an educator? The next submission window opens on the 4^th January 2025.

More about Dr Grace Pearson (she/her):

Grace is a Clinical Lecturer in Ageing Education at Bristol Medical School, and an Adjunct Lecturer in Geriatric Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe. Since finishing her PhD in the field of undergraduate geriatric medicine education, Grace has been continuing her work to innovate and evaluate ageing education in an equitable partnership between the Global North and Global South. @GraceInvaders

Hot Topics: The ELMER project

Posted on March 15, 2024March 15, 2024 by sarah.allsop

This week’s blog is from Dr David Hettle, hot off the recent announcement of winning the ASME/GMC Excellent Medical Education Award (postgraduate category). David tells us a bit more about the planned research project with colleagues across the country, exploring the experiences of doctors undertaking an entry-level medical education roles (ELMERs).

Lisa Jayne Collage — Image from ASME Awards page

Lisa-Jayne Edwards (University of Warwick), Claire Stocker (Aston University), Julie Browne (Cardiff University), Cara Bezzina (University of Glasgow), David Hettle (University of Bristol)

Introduction

More and more doctors take time out of clinical training, with many choosing to undertake teaching posts during years out, especially ‘F3 years’: time out of training after your initial standardised two years post-graduation¹, the ‘Foundation Programme’. These teaching posts have a variety of names including Clinical Teaching Fellows (as they are locally in Bristol), Teaching Fellows, and Education Fellows.

With the increasing need for educators, these posts host a crucial place for doctors developing interest, skills and expertise in medical education as they progress in clinical and educational training. Therefore, there is need to understand the landscape of educational practice which these positions deliver and support the development of these current educators and future educational leaders.

Previous work reviewed the current landscape of entry-level education posts across the UK, finding over 400 positions per year in the UK in 2023², up from 77 in 2008³. Though the numbers of these posts have increased, due to the variety of different titles used and the often transience of the doctors in these positions, research into posts is challenging. Importantly this means research into the quality of these posts remains under-studied.

Why does this matter?

This research holds great opportunity to really find out how early-career educators can be supported. Currently, there seems to be wide variation in the quality of posts, with some offering financial support for educational accreditation, others designated time to teach and develop skills in specific aspects of education.

On the flip side, they are others without any additional time, support or links to educational teams offered, yet still carrying responsibility for others’ learning. This work hopes to facilitate more information and some degree of quality control for early-career educational roles as occurs with other medical specialties, for example through their colleges and specialty societies.

The ELMER study

Building on our work undertaken alongside the Academy of Medical Educators (AoME), this new project through the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) seeks to explore the perspectives of current early-career education post-holders. We will investigate how different role qualities and opportunities impact their experience within medical education and, as a result, doctors’ inclination to pursue future teaching and training responsibilities once they move on from these posts (often back into clinical training).

To encompass all similar roles, our research team has chosen to use the term ‘Entry-Level Medical Education Role’ or ELMER as an individual’s first formal role in medical education.

We will use these doctors’ experience in their ELMERs to identify factors which promote formal teaching and increased educational activity and development. We have positioned the study in a pragmatic paradigm, focusing on the interaction between individuals (i.e. ELMER post-holders) and their environment, emphasising experiential research, and actionable knowledge. The study will use a mixed methods approach using a survey, followed by interviews, inviting any current ELMER post-holders to take part. Qualitative data will be analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, developing and telling the story of current ELMER post-holders.

Alongside the prior review of ELMER posts across the UK, the primary objective of this integral work is to offer insights that can inform policy decisions on how ELMER roles can support doctors in training to become future trainers, assessors, and leaders in medical education.

Why is this work so important to me?

As someone who has been a CTF in the past, but having finished that formal role wondered ‘where next?’, this work adds to the evidence for the development of a more formalised medical education career pathway, supporting educators of the future, alongside their clinical training. The current lack of such a pathway risks losing excellent educators after their ELMER posts, a risk which the field of medical education should not leave to chance.

Watch out for details of how to be involved soon if you are an early-career educator, ‘ELMER’ – we’d love to hear your experience! Drop me an email at david.hettle@bristol.ac.uk if you want to hear any more before then.

References

Church HR, Agius SJ. ‘The F3 phenomenon: Early-career training breaks in medical training. A scoping review’, Med Educ 2021; 55(9): 1033-46.
Hettle D, Edwards LJ, McCormack R, et al. (2023, Dec 4-5). A UK-wide review of Entry-Level Medical Education Roles (ELMERs) [Poster presentation]. Developing Excellence in Medical Education, Manchester, UK. https://www.demec.org.uk/category/demec-2023/
Wilson S, Denison AR, McKenzie H. A survey of clinical teaching fellowships in UK medical schools. Med Educ 2008; 42(2): 170-5.

BMERG News: Award win for one of our Bristol Educators!

Posted on March 12, 2024 by sarah.allsop

We are thrilled to share that one of our BMERG Medical Educators, Dr David Hettle has been recently awarded one of the ASME/GMC Excellent Medical Education Award 2023!

The “Excellent Medical Education” Programme was established by ASME to supporting capacity building of high-quality medical education research. David is part of the team that has won this award in the postgraduate category for their submission: Exploring the experiences and perspectives of junior doctors in Entry-Level Medical Education Roles (ELMERs) that promote pursuit of a medical education career in the United Kingdom.

WINNER OF THE POSTGRADUATE CATEGORY

L-R: Lisa-Jayne Edwards (University of Warwick), Claire Stocker (Aston University), Julie Browne (Cardiff University), Cara Bezzina (University of Glasgow), David Hettle (University of Bristol)

We look forward to hearing more about this work from David and his colleagues in the future.

Read more about this Year’s Excellent Medical Education Award Winners: ASME announces winners of the ASME/GMC Excellent Medical Education Award 2023

Conference Report: The Academy of Medical Educators DMEG Annual Virtual Conference, 4th October 2023

Posted on November 17, 2023November 17, 2023 by sarah.allsop

“Communities of Practice in Practice”

In BMERG’s latest report from 2023 conferences, Dr David Hettle reviews the Developing Medical Educators Group (DMEG) Annual Conference which was held online in October 2023.

The DMEG* conference provides a great opportunity for early-years educators (students, CTFs, or anyone else beginning their medical education journey) to meet others, feel inspired by a conference and presenters looking out for those at the early stage of their educator career and hear about the work of the Academy of Medical Educators and its Developing Medical Educators’ Group.

This year, the DMEG Annual Conference 2023 once again took place online, to promote access to such a conference to developing educators from across the UK and further afield. While the conference’s focus is primarily at developing medical educators and those in parallel training (medical, dental, veterinary or other healthcare science), everyone in medical education continues to develop and so there was something for everybody.

This year, keynote speakers included Dr Phil Xiu and Dr Linda Prescott-Clements, sharing their stories and journeys through healthcare education They inspired attendees to consider their next steps and all the different avenues to pursue this through, as well as recognising that medical educators are the “bridge between skill and passion” in delivering education to students, colleagues and patients.

There were also a number of excellent workshops, focussing on multiple aspects of medical education, such as clinical education scholarship, tips and tricks of teaching critical appraisal as well as developing and delivering workshops, and considering developing your career as a medical educator. View the DMEG 2023 conference programme here and the DMEG 2023 abstract book here.

DMEG also hosts both oral presentations and video pitches during their conferences, sharing novel work and innovations from participating medical educators. This year, the University of Bristol was well represented.

Last year’s University of Bristol lead Clinical Teaching Fellows (CTFs) Dr Alice Middleton (in collaboration Dr Gabriella Agathangelou), gave an oral presentation discussing their new role as lead CTFs and the wins and challenges of building a community of practice amongst CTFs, ‘Herding Cats’. They were highly commended in the oral presentation category.
Former Clinical Teaching Fellows, Dr Jacqueline Roy and Dr Tirion Swart from the North Bristol University of Bristol Teaching Academy were awarded first prize in the Video Pitch category for their work on development of a podcast to support clinical years’ medical student learning on ‘Geri-Pods’, using Podcasts to Broaden Learning on the MDT’s Role in Practice for Medical Students. You can view Jacky and Tirion’s winning pitch on Twitter(X).

*Screenshot from Jacky and Tirion’s DMEG video pitch presentation*

Well done to Alice, Gabby, Jacky and Tirion!

It is expected that DMEG 2024 will again be hosted online, and would be a great opportunity for anyone from the University of Bristol or further afield to meet with other beginning educators looking out for what they’re interested in, seeing what is out there in medical education and look to meet some like-minded individuals from across the world. It is anticipated that the conference will be held early October next year again, but keep an eye on the links above nearer to the time for information and abstract calls.

For information on joining DMEG and the Academy of Medical Educators visit: www.medicaleducators.org/DMEG and www.medicaleducators.org/Why-join-AoME

* The Developing Medical Educators Group (DMEG) is a subgroup of the Academy of Medical Educators and aims to promote the development of early career educators including doctors, medical students, dentists, physician associates and veterinary educators. It is open to all early career educators who are Student, Associate or Full Members of AoME.

BMERG News: BMERG wins Award from ASME

Posted on May 5, 2023July 28, 2023 by sarah.allsop

BMERG has won an Award from the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) to launch the work of the group across the next academic year

Flyer of winners of ASME Educator Development Awards from ASME 2022

We are thrilled to announce that the BMERG team have won an Educator Development Award from the Association of Medical Education (ASME).

These sought after awards are aimed to provide funding to support educator development. We look forward to sharing more about how this funding will support us to build and develop the community of practice to support excellence in Medical Education Research at Bristol in the coming months.