The General Practice Zone was our first I’m a Medic zone, funded by Health Education East Midlands in partnership with The University of Nottingham, University of Leicester and Derby and Derbyshire LMC. It involved six professionals working in primary healthcare and 11 schools based in the East Midlands.
Simon is a Clinical Director and Advanced Practitioner in general practice who sees patients similarly to a GP, and is also responsible for all the medical staff in his practice. Shehla, who won this zone, is a trainee GP currently working as a Junior Doctor in paediatrics and Katharine is a part time GP at a large medical centre. Jonathan is a full time GP partner, Emma is a Practice Nurse working in a doctor’s surgery and Chris is a Practice Manager at a surgery responsible for the day to day running of his Practice.
This zone was very focussed, with some teachers choosing to run the event with students who already had an interest in studying Medicine at university. These students came well prepared to the chats with interesting and well-researched questions. Some classes were A Level students with smaller class sizes, and others were run as lunchtime opt-in sessions, which meant some chats had a small amount of students. In these sessions students were able to engage in more in-depth, back and forth conversations with the professionals.
Almost two thirds of the questions asked were about careers and education, with students really making the most of the opportunity to speak to healthcare professionals and to ask for advice.