Junior doctors who took time out to act as EWTD medical advisers gained leadership skills and experience which is helping to shape their future careers. Working within NHS North West, junior doctors say they were exposed to opportunities not normally afforded to them such as: leading teams, communicating with both senior clinicians and managers and learning technical skills.
They all agree the experience gave them confidence and influenced their future career path in some way.
Dr Yasmin Ahmed-Little, now a member of the chief medical officer’s clinical advisers’ scheme at NHS North West, was the former project director to the EWTD team which achieved early implementation across the north west.
‘The medical adviser’s role involved taking time out to gain leadership skills and competencies which can be taken back into clinical training,’ she says.
In 2007, Dr Ahmed-Little became the project director for EWTD. ‘By then I was leading a team which involved not only line management, but the development of people within a unique situation - an opportunity not often available to junior doctors.’
Previously, she had managed the Medical Workforce Development team, a Greater Manchester Workforce Development Confederation (WDC) which later joined Greater Manchester SHA.
‘There I felt privileged to have exposure to real life experience of clinical leadership at such a junior level, including the opportunity to lead teams, engage with various networks regionally and nationally, set a common vision and manage significant budgets.’
She believes that while medicine teaches doctors to put the patient at the forefront of decision making, they also need to understand the wider picture of best care for all patients at a population level.
‘My EWTD work gave me invaluable knowledge of that aspect.’
Dr Darren Cousins was working as a full time registrar in HIV and sexual health at Manchester Royal Infirmary when he took the year long EWTD role which was ‘outside my comfort zone.
‘I quickly learned the importance of clinicians and managers working together,’ he says. ‘I saw that often the two shared the same interests and it gave me a real insight into how to run a service.’
Dr Cousins said he improved his communication skills, how to influence change and, from a neuro linguistic programme, important patient handling skills. He also learned some technical abilities, including how to write a business plan, prepare a tender document and interview PA candidates. ‘It was a very positive experience to bring back into my clinical work,’ he says.
‘I always knew I wanted to return to clinical medicine but it also made me keen to discover whether I could combine it with a managerial role,’ says Dr Cousins, who now spends 50% of his time as a specialist registrar and 50% as a trainee on the four year North West Deanery Medical Leadership Programme.
This month Dr Rishi Hazarika will complete his 12 months as a EWTD medical adviser in NHS North West, after spending four years in clinical medicine, latterly as a surgical trainee at the Queens Hospital, Burton-on-Trent. ‘What appealed to me was the chance to have an impact on junior doctors’ training, their working lives and ultimately the quality of care to patients.
‘The role opened my eyes to just how much junior doctors could be involved in the management of the NHS, and gave me a greater insight into its structure and organisation.’
Although Dr Hazarika felt he had ‘a good base of leadership skills’ on which to build, the role gave him a greater understanding of leadership and awareness of his own potential.
‘I have learned that the real skill of a leader is to be able to communicate effectively,’ he says. ‘You must find ways to influence people to work towards a common goal.’
The role has not only provided opportunities which have ‘surpassed’ his expectations, but changed his career ambitions.
Dr Hazarika, who has now been accepted on the NHS Breaking Through Top Talent Programme, says: ‘Before this year I was keen on becoming a surgeon, but now I would like to aim for a senior leader’s or chief executive’s position. As a clinician, I had the opportunity to make one to one changes, which was fantastic, but if I become a senior leader, I could empower people to make exponential change.’
Working Time Directive 2009 
