Knowing this course was available locally and delivered by an institution I trust made it an easy decision to make

“There are opportunities to teach everyday when you’re a medical practitioner, and being able to use what you’ve learned and then receive feedback from the students to see if you could have done anything better, is incredibly useful to improve the teaching. This approach has improved my teaching 100 times over and it’s been really satisfying seeing the positive changes.”

Rob is a Rheumatology and General Medicine Registrar from Chesterfield, who also trained in MBChB Medicine at the University of Sheffield, as well as completing his foundation and core medical training in South Yorkshire. Rob started his Specialist Training in Rheumatology in 2018, and has always had an interest in teaching.

Rob says, “Knowing this course was available locally and delivered by an institution I trust, made it an easy decision to make! I was looking for something which would offer me more theory and understanding of my ways of teaching, and how I can improve my teaching. I also wanted a course that I could complete part-time, but wasn’t 100% distance learning. It was important to me that there was a degree of contact teaching, and that I was able to complete the course within one year.”

“I found reading about situated learning theory probably the most interesting aspect, mainly because I completely identified with the content and when I think back to some of the experiences that i had as a student myself, a lot of them came from some of the concepts which are explored as part of this theory.

“That was just one of quite a few different theories that we discussed that I was really able to identify with - and when you reflect and understand these theories, you can learn not only how you benefited from them, but the aso how you can implement them in your own teaching to the benefit of your students.”

Rob advises to look into any possible funding through taking on a paid role at the medical school, or academic training programme or fellowship. Rob adds, “In the short term, I think this has definitely improved the way that I teach on a daily basis, and that’s been reflected in the feedback that I’ve received since I’ve taken on the course. 

“Going forward not only will the course aid me to start planning programmes of teaching, but it will also open the door to getting more formally involved in medical education when I become a consultant in the future, which is a real ambition of mine.”