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Primary healthcare professionals in the East Midlands are being urged to take part in an online competition to boost the number of young people from non-traditional backgrounds and rural areas applying for careers in medicine.
I’m a Medic, Get Me Out of Here!’ is a creative, digital way of giving young people a direct line to working doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants, pharmacists and healthcare administrators. The platform is particularly aimed at helping prospective students into careers in primary health care.
The online event will take place between 5th and 16th March 2018 and is targeting schools and further education colleges in Lincolnshire and the East Midlands counties. These are areas with serious shortages of doctors, particularly GPs, and also the lowest application rates for medicine in the UK. It has been funded by NHS Health Education England are in partnership with the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester and Derby & Derbyshire Local Medical Committee.
Dr Paul Garrud, Chair of Selection for the Medical Schools Council and Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, said: "Our country and our region need more doctors to serve our communities. We wish to encourage young people who might not have considered medicine before. I encourage you to take part in this innovative project to inspire youngsters about primary care and encourage them to train as practitioners.”
Kit Tigwell, a trainee GP who took part in a previous I’m a Medic forum last year said; “This was a great event and I really enjoyed taking part! The whole thing was extremely well organised. I would highly recommend the experience to medical colleagues.”
To take part, healthcare professionals create their own profile on the website and answer students’ questions about their work, background and career, and give advice from the horse’s mouth about how to succeed when applying for medical-related training. Students also get to challenge the healthcare professionals in live text-based chats and then vote for their favourite participant to win £500 to spend on further public engagement.
Nicky Coar, a teacher at Hinckley Academy and John Cleveland Sixth Form Centre, has taken part with her students and said of the online event: “I thought it was a great experience and the students really enjoyed it and were very positive about it. It’s a fantastic opportunity because health professionals are really busy and it can be difficult to get them in to speak to students.”
A participating student said: “I found the event I took part in last November really worthwhile because I was able to ask any questions concerning specific areas of healthcare and gain knowledge about studying medicine at University, tips about interviews as well as generally working within the NHS”.
The deadline for primary healthcare professionals to apply is Monday 5th February 2018 via the following link: imamedic.uk/candidates.
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