HEALTH Awards recognise our talented clinical teachers
WALES’ leading clinical teachers have been awarded for their work.
The Clinical Teacher of the Year Awards, held at National Museum Wales, saw Dr Mark Taubert, a palliative care consultant and clinical director for palliative medicine at Velindre NHS Trust win the prestigious BMA Cymru Wales/ BMJ Clinical Teacher of the Year Award for 2017.
The award recognises a clinical teacher in Wales who has excelled in their work, supporting doctors in training and medical students in Wales.
The judges were particularly impressed by the quality of nominees this year and commended Dr Taubert specifically for his teaching style.
In his role as educational supervisor, Mark has given junior colleagues the words, insights and vocabulary to express an aspect of life that we would often rather avoid talking about, but that, at some point, affects us all.
His engaging approach has had a positive impact on his students and ultimately the patients they have gone on to support. As a clinical teacher Dr Taubert, regularly uses modern cultural references as a starting-point for difficult conversations that have significant educational and emotional impacts on others.
In January 2016, Dr Taubert spoke about the death of David Bowie to inspire discussions among trainees, terminally-ill patients and their relatives, as well as on palliative care ward rounds with SHOs and registrars, in order to help them all in better understanding the nature of the illness.
Dr Taubert went on to write an open letter, which initially acted as a goodbye and thank you note to Bowie, but transformed to include aspects about Mark’s own life and those of his patients. The letter went on to incorporate the aims of palliative care in general, capturing some of the big topics in “end of life” care, including the extent of medical intervention wanted by patients coming to the end of their lives, and the ways in which trainees would need to conduct difficult conversations around this issue for the benefit of patients themselves.
Dr Taubert’s letter was re-tweeted by Duncan Jones, David Bowie’s son – his only interaction with the wider world immediately following his father’s death.
The nominees for the national awards come from local awards given by Wales Deanery, Swansea University Medical School, and Cardiff University School of Medicine. The winners of the individual awards were considered by an independent panel of judges who then decided the overall ‘allWales winner,’ announced at a ceremony held in Cardiff on Wednesday.
Clinical teachers from across Wales were recognised at the award ceremony, which is now in its seventh year.
The winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award was Dr Matthew Sargeant, a Consultant Psychiatrist in Haverfordwest and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Hywel Dda. Dr Victoria Suter Jones was identified as the ‘Rising Star,’ while Dr Justin Cressey Rodgers scooped the prize for Teaching and Learning Innovation.
The recipient of the BMA Cymru Wales Sherman Foundation Award, which promotes widening access to the profession, was Nadia Youssef. The Cardiff University student won £500 to go towards supporting her in her medical studies.
Dr Philip Banfield, BMA Welsh Council Chairman, said: “The Clinical Teacher of the Year Awards 2017 celebrated the pivotal role clinical teachers’ play in the medical workforce; driving innovation, educating our future doctors, and providing clinical leadership and expertise to ensure high-quality care to patients across the health service.
“Dynamic clinical teachers are key to the delivery of high quality training for our doctors throughout their professional careers. The quality of clinical teaching in Wales is a clear reason for doctors to make Wales their preferred choice to complete their postgraduate training.
“My heartfelt congratulations to everyone who achieved a nomination.”
To find out more about the Clinical Teacher of the Year Awards, visit www.bma.org.uk/clinicalteacheraward