Miss Clara Munro
After growing up in Kent Clara Munro initially studied Anthropology at Durham University before switching allegiances and graduating from Newcastle Medical School with Merit in the MBBS exams. She went on to complete her Foundation jobs at the RVI in Newcastle Upon Tyne before taking up a post in General Surgical Training in the North East of England in 2018. She became a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in 2019 after passing her MRCS exams.
Her drive for success and impatience with inefficiencies in the organisational structure she encountered along the way led to her into taking up leadership roles throughout her training. She was the president of the Doctor’s Mess during her Foundation training and went on to become the Core Training regional representative for Surgery. In order to drive change, she has been actively involved in quality improvement by way of audits and research, presenting regionally and nationally, but more recently has enjoyed employing a journalistic style of writing and submitting work on the subject of ‘Bullying in Surgery’ and addressing how to begin to deconstruct an insidious, but harmful problem.
Drawing experience from her background in Anthropology she became fascinated by the significant change in culture that existed within seemingly identical institutions within the NHS. It inspired her to reflect on how to promote better leadership and build cohesive teams, emanating a culture enabling individuals to flourish. This and her passion for writing, drew her to become interested in the job of Editorial Registrar at the BMJ, amongst others, offered by the National Medical Director's Clinical Fellow Scheme. She realised that better appreciation of both individual drivers and the wider structure of the NHS could have an impact on driving cultural change through good leadership. She hopes to be able to gain skills in leadership to help enable a paradigm shift in poor functioning teams and gain skills that allow her to become a better leader and create a safe and respectful culture within her teams that better facilitate good patient care.
