Thankfully, I have had fantastic feedback verbally, by email and on social media. This has been hugely encouraging and has given me a little more confidence to speak out a bit louder about "my purpose". I delivered the speech at the opening of the conference. I had been up since 1 am ruminating about the themes in my head!
"I saw this slide a few months ago, it really appealed to me. I could not really comprehend why, but I saved it anyway. Walter Benjamin the early 20th century German philosopher once said 'speech commands thought and writing conquers it'. On looking for inspiration for this speech that is what happened. In focussing on the words above it became clear what the vision and the process really were to me.
Let me speak about
The vision (short term and longer term)
Aims of conference
I am hoping you re-engage with why you chose to be a trainer, to
revisit the warm glow you get from seeing trainees develop.To enjoy company of colleagues with a similar outlook.
To get away from some of the stresses of running your
practices, with constantly moving goalposts.
To learn loads, (I am unapologetic for the noticeable increase
in intensity in the content of the conference compared to previous years).
We are so fortunate to have such expertise in our patch.. even a Health Service Journal award
winner and docs on the Pulse power 50 GP list! Along one of the founders of
"Grassroots GP" .....all will become clear at the end of the
conference (clue : social media).
Thank you to all the workshop speakers, in advance! We are
most grateful for you putting your head above the parapet and offering
workshops.
Long term vision
Well, I could speak about GMCs "The shape of training" or to their document
"The state of Med Ed and practice in The UK 2013" or the revised
"HEE mandate".. But, I am going to be selfish and tell you briefly
about MY vision. To which you may conclude I require some lithium or
something..but here goes.
I am embarking on a six year part time PhD, not for any pretentious
title reasons,or for a particular career pathway, but because I truly believe
in the cause, I am essentially self funding. I am studying at Birmingham University School of Education, within the Jubilee Centre which looks at Character Education and Values.
My cause is "Eudaimonia" - state of human flourishing ( as described by Aristotle, 3500 years ago) ..Sarby
first heard this and thought it was an STI!
I believe it is potentially possible to achieve Eudaimonia if we shift the
focus of education to character and values. The focus of my research is practical wisdom (phronesis): being wise, in the broad but very practical sense. Wisdom not just as a cognitive process but as a virtue.
It is inherent to our jobs
along with other professions such as Law and Banking. I recommend an inspiring
readable holiday book by Barry Schwartz
"Practical Wisdom - The right way to do the right thing".
I will read you a short extract from the book:
We are happiest when our work is meaningful and gives us the discretion to use our judgement. The discretion allows us to develop the wisdom to exercise the judgement we need to do our job well
I ideologically challenge that tick box curriculums, traffic
light management of trainees, in fact the very tenant that medical school is
based on - the biomedical model, has the wrong emphasis.
When I think about what I remember from my GP training, it
wasn't the content of the Wolverhampton training grid, it wasn't the content of
summative assessment....it was inspirational people/trainers, their dedication,
commitment, kindness and work ethic.
There is an error in this slide, but I love it. These are some of the professional role models in my life. It is not supposed to say "saving" across the top, as that was a process of the "app", but for some reason it does. I think as a result it really illustrates what Professor Billett refers to when he speaks of "Appropriation - setting it (behaviours) apart and using it for my own use".
Prof Billett from Griffiths University, Australia (guru in learning in practice) closed a Med Ed research conference last week suggesting "appropriate Appropriation
trumps Mastery".
I suspect we are getting dis-illusioned and frustrated
because tasks are onerous and do not seem to serve their purpose in creating
the best doctors, and may even prevent us from being good doctors.
Thus, potential solutions which shift the focus to character
and values , such as a current movement for positive education - e.g PERMA (Seligman)........So I am hoping you can see my purpose.
For the cynics and critics amongst you ( and there will be some) the educational endowment foundation looked at a cost/impact analysis of a few educational methods. They found that attending to metacognition ( that is essentially what we are talking about here) has a high impact at low cost.
The process
About some recent difficulties along with an apology:
-Administration , still no dedicated administrator for Birmingham & Solihull (BSOL).
Flux in the administrators who do support BSOL, thus things slipping through
the net. We have a patch was big as Oxford Deanery. I have lobbied, Debra (team leader) has lobbied, Martin has escalated. Still no support...but we ( Debra's
team and myself) are doing our best under the circumstances. It obviously boils
down to ...cost savings, but in the mean time I am aware of problems with
.....just about everything that requires good administration.
I am hoping you are thinking, "How can we help?",
well being patient with us in the first instance, (* summer ARCP feedback is on
tiny strips of paper, as the thought of emailing 180 trainers was demoralising
for me) and secondly ....well, maybe ask Martin what can be done?
-Portfolio frustrations...can we field some of the questions
for Ryan and Sian's expertise in the workshop tomorrow as they probably have
better answers to hand?
- Tightened education and training budgets in a climate of
growing training demands in primary care (déjà vu situation) ..inevitable in
the current NHS climate..so some advance apologies if the ramifications affect
you.
So, for me the "process" is actually less about
the operational aspects of the Deanery (but as patch AD I will still strive to
ensure we meet the performance targets, quality standards and curriculum aims),
but the PROCESS is more about LEARNING, about INFLUENCE and the BELIEF that
things WILL BE better, even GOOD, and WE (me and you) can make and influence
that GOOD, even with the constraints and limitations.
So, PROCESS to me, is more about an ATTITUDE.
Thus, if you are open to the concept, I am hoping to
unashamedly infect you with the concept of Eudaimonia . We have NOTHING to
lose.
So ........after 6 months in my new patch AD role my new
mantra:
Just a few final housekeeping things:
We have a twitter wall at this conference so please use the hashtag and tweet learning points, feedback and interesting things!
I am still the Associate Dean for Foundation Training in GP. I have not included any foundation workshops in this conference but I have updated the training guide and it is on the Deanery website as highlighted.
And finally….
I wanted to say thank you…not just for the explicit things you do as a trainer, but for the tacit things too. I prepared this slide for you - I took the photo in Iceland.
Dr Sabena Jameel
28th Nov 2013
Hinkley Island Hotel
Leicestershire
