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Confident Concerns

Department: UCL Medical School

Project Team: Luke, Irene, Ann, Kath, Jayne and Deirdre.

The below case study has been edited by Abbie King (UCL ChangeMakers team) based on the case study response from Luke. 

The General Medical Council, medical students and doctors’ regulatory body, states that all doctors have a responsibility to raise concerns when unprofessional conduct is seen. I believe empowering medical students with both the knowledge and the confidence to raise concerns is vital to improving the quality of UCL Medical School, the experience of UCL medical students’ education, and ultimately the calibre of doctor we produce. This project set out to understand and improve the UCL Medical School’s students raising concerns system.

Research conducted into students' experiences of raising concerns was sobering. We discovered students often feel raising concerns is the right thing to do, but they don't always know when and how to raise concerns, and lack confidence to do the right thing in a challenging situation. We have addressed this through introducing new curriculum material to students and making the form to raise concerns more accessible.

" I loved the experience. I think the most powerful thing about it for me was having the confidence that UCL have chosen to back and support my project. 

I think the research went well and I greatly valued the opportunity to learn how to run focus groups thanks to the support of the UCL Medical School staff. I was incredibly grateful for the support of Medical School staff in designing and adapting some of the syllabus to help match the needs students reported in the research undertaken. ChangeMakers provided some useful training in leadership which was a great motivator to continue to rise to the challenges of running a project. I learned a lot about my own leadership strengths and weaknesses which will be invaluable in the future.

As a final year medical student, time stopped me taking full advantage of the multitude of useful learning opportunities provided by ChangeMakers as possible. I would have really liked to have got stuck into the community of ChangeMakers and met some of the project leads to be inspired by the good work they are doing. I would have also liked to have put more time aside to reflect as I went through the project, to figure out why I was doing what I was doing, and what I was learning as I went along.

I loved the experience. I think the most powerful thing about it for me was having the confidence that UCL have chosen to back and support my project. This gave me a momentum to push through some of the challenges which I came across, and to take more confidence in my abilities.

" I would have also liked to have put more time aside to reflect as I went through the project, to figure out why I was doing what I was doing, and what I was learning as I went along.

I hope my project has helped to empower medical students' to recognise that raising concerns can make a difference and is a responsibility of all medical students. Practically, I hope that students also know how to raise a concern now. Continual research will aim to measure these concretely.

Do it. An experience such as ChangeMakers is invaluable and provides you with so many opportunities to pick up skills which lectures, essays, and exams do not teach you. Even more importantly, it is a fantastic opportunity to leave your mark on UCL for the future and leave it a better place for future students.