Posted on: 26 June 2023
Students from The University of Buckingham Medical School (UBMS) have rated CNWL as an ‘excellent’ place to learn, after completing placements at Milton Keynes Hospital Campus.
Dr Madalina Cristanovici, Director of Undergraduate Medical Education and UBMS Mental Health Block Lead, was delighted with the response.
“The feedback is fantastic and I am so pleased that students are benefiting so much from the programme. This is the first time we have hosted medical students in Milton Keynes and the positive feedback and success of the programme is a real testament to everyone’s hard work for which I am so grateful.
“The challenge now is to maintain the positive learning environment we have created and to keep the enthusiasm and quality for all future cohorts”.
Students were particularly impressed with the warmth of CNWL staff, the support shown by supervisors, and the facilities available during the placements.
“The staff were extremely welcoming and helpful, especially on Hazel ward,” said one student.
“I felt I got good exposure to a lot of the other mental health facilities and got to understand how everything works, considering we do not get much psychiatric training in phase 1.”
Educational Supervisors Dr Alexandra Ademolu, Dr Rohini Ravishankar, Dr Tarun Goel and Dr Hareem Siddiqui, provide support to students throughout the placement, with the teaching programme coordinated by Dr Masum Khwaja, Teaching Lead.
The teaching programme has attracted a number of outstanding facilitators who range in experience from young trainee psychiatrists to consultants expert in their field. Those with links to CNWL include Professor Owen Bowden-Jones, Dr Maddalena Miele, Dr James Warner, Dr Mehtab Rahman, Dr Gopalkrishna Hegde, Dr Eli Lean (CT2), and Christa Daboiko (MH Pharmacist South Westminster).
If you are interested in teaching and would like to have your name added to the teaching pool, please contact Madalina (madalina.cristanovici@nhs.net) or Masum (masum.khwaja@nhs.net).
The administrative side is key to the smooth running of the teaching programme and this is managed efficiently and with humour, by Lucy Hinks, Medical Education Administrator. Lucy has also received excellent feedback.
Prior to welcoming the third rotation of students to Milton Keynes earlier this week, the team had already started to implement some of the suggested improvements based on feedback from the first two rotations, and in keeping with effective quality improvement practice intend for feedback from each rotation of students to continue to be rigorously collated and acted on in the future.