A NEW generation of medical stu- dents training at Stafford Hospital is laying the groundwork for the future of healthcare services in the area.
A new programme is giving third-year trainee doctors the chance to work onsite gaining insight into hospital medicine and an appreciation for the day to day business of the ward their academic studies can’t provide.
Dr Nick Bosanko, lead for the students, said: “It’s a big deal that Keele University and also the General Medical Council have recognised that we are providing really excellent training here in an environment that is actually brilliant for getting a good grounding in general medicine without the pressures of being a massive super hospital with
hundreds of students.”
Dr Bosanko said it was crucial
to the future of the hospital to embed an atmosphere whereby trainees wanted to come back.
“These guys vote with their feet,” he said. “They’ve got opportunities to go all over the country when they qualify, but we want quality doctors coming back after really excellent training.”
Poonam Tank, 20, one of the new intake said she was impressed by the willingess of busy staff to offer time and expertise to the students.
Another trainee, Maya Zosmer, 26, said the generous attitude of the doctors and nurses to the students was inspiring.
“It’s been really good so far, the doctors, the consultants and the nurses have just been really helpful,” she said.
Saira Geevarghese, 20, added the opportunity to have more contact with patients was
invaluable and was helping her grow in confidence and as a clinician.
Dr Bosanko, himself a trainee at Stafford before retuning to work there full-time, emphasised his own experience of the hospital had been of staff genuinely excited about teaching.
“That’s across the board, nurses, doctors, all the specialists and the specialist nurses - that’s one of the striking things,” he said. “If you go to some of the bigger hospitals everything is more pressured, some of the students feel a little bit more isolated and when you turn up to a clinic you may not be greeted in quite as friendly a manner as you are in a smaller general hospital.
“Everybody at Mid Staffs recognises if we provide an excellent experience, it will result in high quality doctors wanting to come back to work on our wards when they qualify.”
