TS News December: Reflections from the annual FMLM conference
The first ever annual FMLM conference took place on 16 and 17 October in Manchester Central. It was a resounding success and was very enthusiastically attended by several hundred trainees and medical students. We were treated to a variety of high calibre breakout sessions, tailored specifically to the needs and interests of junior doctors and students. Dr Jon Rohrer, the workstream lead of the Trainees’ Steering Group, was instrumental in organising the events and describes them below. This is followed by three reflections from the conference.
Jon Rohrer, TSG Workstream Lead, Conference and Events:
The hugely popular first trainee and medical student session was organised by Dr Claire Lemer. We heard initially from Dr Anna Moore, Outgoing Chair of the TSG about the importance of leadership and management as a part of medical training. This was followed by an invigorating talk on why leadership is important from the patient perspective. The morning ended with three brilliant oral presentations chosen from 150 entries to the FMLM poster competition on “How I changed the system”. Day two’s highlight came from six senior medical leaders who revealed to trainees their top five tips from what they had learned during their careers.
Mahesh Kudari, NHS Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow, BUPA:
Healthcare is expensive: are we getting the most for our money? The conference highlighted the challenges that clinical leaders face and brought them together to forge a path for focusing on high quality and high value care.
The ‘Value for Patients’ workstream was particularly effective in highlighting the challenge: Dr Kevin Stewart gave a fascinating overview of the challenges to global healthcare asking us to consider Bohmer’s “Four Habits of High Value Healthcare” and Atul Gawande’s “Cost Conundrum”. Both explore the roots of what makes care organisations effective and what makes them expensive.
An enduring theme across the conference was recognition that outcomes would be the currency with which we measure value. We must focus on clinical, patient-centric and social outcomes to judge the efficacy of care and drive up quality. It therefore seems prudent that the conversations of clinical leaders focused on improving access to quality, improving outcomes and reducing unwarranted variation in both.
Curbing the cost of high value high quality healthcare will help safeguard universal access and sustainability - effective clinical leadership is critical to delivering these changes.
Soe Nyunt Aung, ST5 in Community Sexual and Reproductive Health, Leeds:
The event was very useful to trainees and provided an insight into day to day leadership and management. As a trainee in a new specialty - Community Sexual and Reproductive Health - Attending two days of conference boosted my confidence and now I realise where I can go to seek help should I require it. Social networking and regional sessions constitute a
great asset to both members and FMLM. In our specialty, the leadership module is the greater part of the curriculum and a major part of training is related to service management and leadership. The NHS is constantly changing and to keep up to date with developments, we need to share among our members our experience and knowledge relating to leadership and management. Any trainee aspiring to know about this specialty can browse the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health website.
Nassim Parvizi, NHS Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow, MHRA:
I joined FMLM as part of the NHS Medical Director's Clinical Fellows Scheme earlier this year. FMLM serves as a safe home where we can go to for support and guidance for all of our new and exciting experiences.
We attended the first annual conference ‘Four Nations, One Challenge- improving patient outcomes’ in October, which for the first time brought together a great team of like-minded individuals from all levels of the medical food chain. The conference had a lively buzz and there was a great degree of enthusiasm and vigour in all attendees. I found the significant role that quality improvement plays in all participants’ agendas very refreshing, as this leads to improvement in patient care and better outcomes.
The series of talks and breakout sessions were tailored to cover a wide range of topics that could be chosen. For me, the highlight of the conference was the session where members from all four nations spoke about how they all had different approaches of ultimately wanting to deliver the same end product: better patient outcomes. This session proved that the variety of individuals the medical profession attracts can lead to a cohort of distinctive leaders working within the NHS of today. Through engaging with the FMLM and developing our skills, we can become the better leaders of tomorrow.
The main take-home message for me was that anyone, at any level or stage of their career can lead well using a combination of leadership styles and through engaging with their team members. This engagement requires us to on occasion, wear our heart on our sleeves, as through emotional engagement and building relationships with our team, we can all lead to great change.
So go forth, lead and love, to deliver better patient outcomes!