Our 12 visiting fellows - paediatricians and child health nurses - kickstarted their fellowship with RCPCH Conference in Birmingham in March. This event brings together more than 2,300 delegates from around the world, and so offers an opportunity for talks, presentations and workshops across paediatric specialties. Three memorable days of networking, sharing passions and settling before starting their NHS placements.
Excellent supervisor and structured programme from the first day to last.
The purpose of the RCPCH Visiting Fellowship scheme is to enable leading paediatricians and paediatric nurses from low and middle income countries to visit UK clinical centres where they can develop their knowledge and exchange good practice. Our 2024 fellows are all in the early to mid years of their career. They are talented, dedicated, and enthusiastic individuals who strive to strengthen their own countries health services drawing from the practices they observed during their NHS placements.
The RCPCH Global team prepared months in advance to welcome our fellows and arrange their placements in three NHS hospitals: Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Wirral University Teaching Hospital and University Hospital Southampton.
During the five-week placement, each fellow had a mentor to oversee their fellowship and guide them to understand the inner workings of our renowned national health service. The scheme is structured from the first day to the last, allowing our fellows to see and reflect on the practices witnessed in a paediatric cycle of care. This included GP observation at primary level, out-patient departments and emergency care at secondary level, and advanced neonatology services offered at tertiary level.
I respect the humble nature of consultants and nursing staff. They are so friendly.
A few days before leaving, the fellows were called together to have a debrief. Each presented their insights, highlights and key take backs.
When asked ‘What was the biggest surprise?’, they repeatedly mentioned the structure of the NHS, referral system, MDT (multidisciplinary team) communication, approach to patients, versatility of nursing staff and specialised nurses, recognition/exposure in schools where nurses pick up on behaviour traits of neurodiversity and the ability to access high quality secondary and tertiary care in a public hospital.
Dr Zohra Ghanghro, a visiting fellow from Pakistan, said it was fantastic to see a NOxBOX delivery device in real life for babies who had PPHN (Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn). This was equipment which she had only read about in books but is not available back home.
Back home, out of pocket expenses change the dimension of illness and do not allow us to feel the impact of our work as healthcare providers.
RCPCH Global benefits so much from the fellows' feedback. It shows an alignment to our existing global child health programmes approaches that are designed to build capacity, establish structure and strengthen systems. All of which are vital elements to any successful health service.
The practices that stood out to the fellows indicate areas that we can include in further collaboration with our existing partners in low and middle income countries. The RCPCH Visiting Fellowship scheme has proven to be an enlightening experience for our fellows, who have left feeling motivated and equipped with an action plan to take back home.
Also in attendance of the debrief, were UK based health professionals, Dr Doug Simkiss, Dr John Rasquinha and Sarah McMurtrie. Dr Simkiss delivered a presentation to introduce quality improvement and clinical audit methods to our fellows and encourage them to see themselves as ‘agents of change.’ This included a demonstration of a successful clinical audit conducted in Malawi. Dr Rasquinha led a stimulating discussion on leadership. These sessions intended to guide and encourage our skilled fellows to take bold steps to improve the quality and consistency of their own health services where needed.
Look out soon for a short video from several of the fellows!
We look forward to continuing and expanding our annual Visiting Fellowship scheme to offer a new cohort the opportunity to network and enhance their skills during placements in our NHS.
Applications for next year’s Visiting Fellowships open in October 2024.