Your career, Wales's future
[Dr Lowri Evans, Welsh Clinical Leadership Training Fellow]
Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) looks at its Welsh Clinical Leadership Training Fellowship (WCLTF) programme, which enables trainees to enhance their skills and become clinical leaders of the future.
This twelve-month scheme welcomes applications from trainees looking to develop projects that improve the delivery of training across Wales.
Dr Lowri Evans, a Palliative Medicine Registrar who returned to Wales to train in her specialty, was successful in last year’s round.
Previously a Clinical Teaching Fellow at Great Western Hospital in Swindon, she also led a Global Health Student Selected Component (SSC) to Uganda; now, she is working to develop a simulation strategy for the new internal medicine curriculum.
However, Lowri eagerly highlights that the WCLTF programme offers much more experience than simply project management:
“I felt that when I applied, it would all be about just “the project”, and what I’ve learnt is that it’s about the experience that you have with an organisation.
“I’ve really enjoyed the combination of project time, interspersed with shadowing or conference opportunities and networking, with a small amount of clinical opportunity as well.”
Indeed, the role’s flexibility is a key element of the programme, allowing successful applicants to acquire and use a wide range of experiences to develop in their clinical careers.
As Lowri notes, “One of the really refreshing things about this year is the opportunity to manage your own time, and to be trusted to do so well in order to maximise the extra opportunities.
“You can do up to twenty percent clinical work as well, which I’ve done on a bit of an ad hoc basis.”
Importantly, applicants are not required to have had significant experience in leadership and management prior to becoming a Fellow; rather, these skills, amongst others, are developed during the role itself:
“Having spoken to one of last year’s Leadership Fellows, they assured me that you need to be enthusiastic and have an interest, but actually the year is about you learning those things, and not having a prerequisite already.”
“There weren’t any projects in my specialty, and I thought twice about applying, but now, with the benefit of hindsight, I know I’d have had good experiences in maybe four or five of the projects that other Fellows are doing well.”
Others who accepted this opportunity, taken over from the Wales Deanery by HEIW, have gone on to work in the health technology sector, or to influence health policy within national government.
Already thinking of her own future, Lowri herself is keen that the knowledge and experience she accumulates over the next year be used to fulfil her career aspirations.
For her, she acknowledges, this is possible due to the availability of such development opportunities in Wales, which those not originally from the nation can also apply for.
“Going forward”, Lowri says, “I’d really like to have an educational role, perhaps within HEIW when I’m a consultant.
“I think this placement has given me clarity on how I see my career mapping out in the future, once I return to clinical practice, and once I qualify as a consultant – the longer term picture for me.”
“I enjoy working with patients and staff in Wales; there’s also a really good work-life balance here, with a low cost of living, and opportunities like the Fellowship programme are accessible.
“If you were elsewhere in the UK, I don’t know whether you’d have the same opportunities as I’ve had during my training here.”
Keep checking our website for further examples of our Leadership Fellows’ work through the year, as well as news on how to apply to become one: https://www.walesdeanery.org/leadership-fellows
The next round of recruitment will take place in Autumn 2019.
For further information please contact HEIW’s Quality Improvement Skills Training (QIST) by emailing HEIW.QIST@wales.nhs.uk.