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First students start course at new medical institute

12/12/2016

More than 20 hospital doctors have become the first students at an innovative new medical institute in Wolverhampton.

The new Academic Institute of Medicine (AIM) is a partnership between the University and the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT).

The aim of the new postgraduate medical school is to enable doctors to take the next step in their careers by enhancing their skills and knowledge, leading to improved patient care and service delivery.

An MSc Clinical Medicine is the first course offered by AIM and 22 doctors from the RWT New Cross Hospital have started on the two-year programme.

The course is designed to be flexible, enabling a doctor to study alongside their busy schedule and to incorporate projects and activities they are involved with in their daily practice.   

It is intended to prepare doctors from the NHS to become effective professionals in the workplace, covering areas such as clinical leadership and management, speciality medicine and teaching and learning.

Medical Director at AIM, Professor Baldev Singh, said: “The NHS is facing challenges as it attempts to manage increasing volumes of complex work at a time of resource constraint and staff shortages. Our aim is to create innovative academic provision that promotes high quality support to medical training.”

Dr Mark Whitsey is a Senior Clinical Fellow in the Care of the Elderly Department at RWT New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton, and wanted to study a course that would help prepare him for consultancy.‌

He said: “When you become a consultant, you are expected to be a leader of that department, but you don’t necessarily pick those skills up through the other medical training you do.

“The course has opened my eyes to the thought processes behind career planning and development, and going forward it will allow me to appraise the knowledge that will develop my own skills as I become an independent consultant.”

Dr Swati Bhasin works within the Urology department at RWT New Cross, and hopes to become a registrar within the next two years.

“Getting into registrar posts is competitive, so a Master’s degree makes you a strong candidate. Our work has a lot to do with dealing with different personalities, so the course is enabling us to enhance our communication skills.

“Everyone involved with AIM has been really helpful - I know where the course is going and I am really enjoying it.”

As a Fellow on the two-year MSc Clinical Medicine programme, doctors can work towards a Master’s level qualification, focused on learning that occurs within their professional practice. Each programme is developed around individual, employer and sector needs, ensuring that learning is current, reflective and targeted.

AIM combines a range of teaching and learning methods, including workshops and a cutting edge virtual learning environment.

The Master’s has five themes: clinical leadership and management; teaching and learning; evidence based practice; speciality medicine and medical practice and innovation.

Delivered by experts at the University’s Faculties of Social Sciences and Education, Health and Wellbeing working alongside medical educators in the NHS context, the course assessments are based on completion of assignments, work-based learning projects and a research dissertation.

For more information, visit: www.wlv.ac.uk/AIM

ENDS

Pic 1: Dr Mark Whitsey from the Care of the Elderly Department at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton

Pic 2: Dr Swati Bhasin from the Urology department at New Cross Hospital.

For more information please contact the Media Relations Office on 01902 32 2736 or 01902 518647.

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