A few things I have learned (PAL award update)

In this update I would like to highlight some of the things I have learned through taking part in Doc-to-Doctor.

My involvement as chairman of Doc-to-doctor has brought with it positive challenges that I feel have helped me to develop my assertiveness skills.  Looking back to the start of my role as chairman, I can see that I anxiously sought the approval of the other committee members and that in my efforts to project an image of politeness and flexibility I was often left feeling like I lacked control. I now feel that I have gained a much better understanding of what it means to be assertive and can now appreciate the benefits it can bring. I can see that assertiveness isn’t about being “bossy” or “demanding” it is about demonstrating a healthy confidence whereby you are able to communicate your own thoughts whilst respecting those of others. Being direct and honest with people is key to this. I have come to realise that I cannot expect people to read my mind – what might seem obvious to me may not be so obvious to others. I have learned that it is best to keep requests simple and direct and that there is rarely any need for elaborate explanations.  As a result of this my confidence has improved. I feel that I have gained an internal locus of control and that my actions are much less governed by the behaviour of others. This ties in with my realisation of the importance of delegation (see previous blog post). As a result, I feel less stressed because I feel more able to say “no” to requests that would otherwise spread me thin.

When I first took over Doc-to-doctor I don’t think I quite appreciated the breadth of the task. I also drastically underestimated the amount of time that I would need to invest in order to prepare the teaching sessions. Since this all occurred during a very taxing period of exams, it forced me to develop my organisational skills and find more efficient ways of working. I had to learn how to identify goals, plan and prioritise. A technique that I have found helping in achieving this, is the use of “prioritisation grids”. I find they help me to prioritise tasks more quickly and that the simple act of writing things down in an organised manner keeps me from feeling so overwhelmed. I am sure this sort of technique will come in handy when faced with time pressures on the wards during my clinical attachments/future work and they are something that I plan to continue using.

Another thing that I have learned is the importance of flexibility. There have been times were things haven’t gone exactly to plan with the Doc-to-doctor teaching sessions, examples have included: IT issues, problems with room bookings and problems sourcing clinical examination equipment. These things have shown me that when things don’t work, the best thing to do is change your approach and try something different. I have come to realise that a last minute restructure of previous plans doesn’t signify failure. Instead, it demonstrates an ability to keep things moving forward. This has given me a new outlook towards future challenges and I can see that problems need only be a worry if you cannot adapt to them.

 

 

And we are off..... (PAL award update)

So, this week saw the start of our doc-to-doctor teaching sessions. It has been a long build up and so it felt great to finally put our preparation into action and get on with the reason doc-to-doctor was set up in the first place – to teach!

As chairman of the committee, I started the session with a brief introduction and then handed over to one of our tutors who gave a lecture on the basics of history taking and anatomical planes. We then divided the student cohort into small groups and spent the rest of the evening going through practice history taking sessions and short answer questions. Overall, the evening ran smoothly and I was really pleased with how things came together. The enthusiasm from the students was incredibly rewarding and reinforced my desire to get involved with peer assisted learning.

When it came to tackling the short answer questions, rather than just handing the question sheets out and expecting students to fill them in, I attempted to employ the techniques of Socratic questioning that we were introduced to during our PAL training sessions. I used each question as a starting point for a conversation and tried to encourage students to think more broadly about why the topic of the question was important and how it may link with other aspects of the medical course. Since it was the first time I have attempted such a thing, I really didn’t know how it was going to be perceived. I was worried that the students may find the approach tedious, so it was a relief to receive some positive feedback. The students told me that they much preferred the interactive discussion because it allowed them to appreciate different ways of looking at a particular problem and it forced them to consider more wide ranging implications. Other tutors reported similar findings and so this is certainly a skill that I shall work towards developing over the next sessions.

When it came to the practice history taking sessions, I acted out the role of a patient and the students took it in turns to take a history from me. They all observed each other taking the history and provided each other with positive and critical feedback. Acting as the patient rather than the person taking the clinical history was a novel experience. It offered me a new perspective on the doctor patient relationship and it showed me that by teaching others, you can really learn a lot yourself! As the patient, I was much more aware of the students’ body language and was able to think about how I could adapt my own when speaking with real patients to ensure that they feel comfortable.  I also became more aware of the need to respond to verbal and non-verbal cues given by the patient and how praise or a few supportive words can make a huge difference to a consultation. I aim to bear this in mind for my next round of clinical practice teaching blocks.

Almost Ready to Start (PAL award update)

The Doc-to-Doctor sessions are due to start in two weeks time. I can’t wait to meet all of the new students and find out how they have been getting along with the course so far. However, I must admit, the excitement is almost balanced by nerves! As chairman of the committee I feel a great sense of responsibility in ensuring that the sessions run smoothly.

The past few months have been a learning curve and I feel that I have discovered a great deal about myself and about running a student society. It took me a little while to ease into the role of chairman and I think this is because I am not naturally a very assertive person. At the beginning of the semester I struggled with delegating tasks, perhaps because of fear of being perceived as “bossy” or “demanding”.  As a result, there were times where I felt that I had taken on too much work.

Although the ability to wisely and effectively delegate tasks is a quality far more quiet than some of the others we may associate with a good leader (boldness, resilience and determination), I can now appreciate that it is one of the most crucial to a leader’s success. By looking at other student organisations I have gained a greater understanding of what a chairman role should involve. I have come to realise that a leader isn’t necessarily somebody who maintains all control and authority, but rather, somebody who excels in managing time, resources and people. The role of a leader isn’t about doing everything yourself, it is about marshalling all of these elements into a successful pathway towards your goals.

I now find it much easier to share out the workload and believe that the experience has so far helped to improve my own personal confidence. I feel that my decision to implement the new role of “secretary” into the Doc-to-Doctor committee is evidence of this. Through implementation of the new role, I have been set free to focus on the truly important aspects of doc-to-doctor. I feel that I no longer have to be a “slave” to detail, that I can keep sight of the “big picture” and ensure that our teaching sessions run in ways that remain true to the values that we have worked so hard to build upon.

I have also come to realise that delegation can be a powerful method of increasing the morale and confidence of other team members and this is certainly something that I will bear in mind when it comes to working in teams as part of my future career.

At the beginning of the semester when we were in the middle of our planning stages I felt that we needed a framework for how the sessions should run and that as leader it was my responsibility to ensure consistency by encouraging tutors to stick to this. It didn’t take long for me to realise that this simply wasn’t feasible. By taking a step back and allowing the other tutors the freedom to run teaching sessions how they like without me looking over their shoulders, I feel that they are more satisfied because they are able to exercise their own innovative skills rather than be dictated to. I can now appreciate how critical it is for a leader to demonstrate that they trust their team members.  

A New Challenge: Doc-to-Doctor and the PAL award (PAL award update)

Having recently taken over as chairman of Doc-to-Doctor (a peer led teaching society) I thought it made sense to sign myself up for the PAL (peer assisted learning) award. So far the training sessions for the scheme have been really useful. We were introduced to theories such as Socratic questioning and given tips on things such as engaging shy students or building up towards large group discussions. They have also given the Doc-to-Doctor committee a chance to reflect upon how we can go about improving our skills in terms of facilitating group work sessions.

 

Since the aim of the Doc-to-Doctor sessions is to get students to integrate their knowledge from across the medical school curriculum, I feel that Socratic questioning will be a good framework on which to base our group sessions. I believe it will help to ensure that we as tutors are facilitating learning rather than just delivering material. I plan to use this form of questioning style to try and get students to think more critically about the curriculum material and to open up discussion. It is my hope that this approach will help students to become more reflective in their learning.

 

The teaching sessions for Doc-to-Doctor will start  next semester and preparation for these is well underway. The committee has so far spent a great deal of time preparing teaching materials for the group work sessions. We have gone over banks of questions from past years and re-written large chunks in an effort to increase the amount of material that tests true understanding of a topic rather than just rote factual learning. We hope to finalise this over the next week and then make a start on a set of lectures.