Shehla was voted the winner of the General Practice Zone in June 2017. Here she writes about donating her prize money to a local project aimed at widening participation in medicine, and the other engagement and outreach she has been involved with since I’m a Medic, including visiting her former college to help students with medical school applications.
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My proposal for the winning money was to engage with local schools to encourage students to consider medicine and primary care as a career – particularly to those from less affluent backgrounds. After winning the prize, I was able to visit my previous college to help sixth form students with their applications for medical school – some of whom were successful.
As the activities I was involved in didn’t cost anything that I felt I could use, I contacted Dr Jonathan Corne, acting Secondary Care and Deputy Postgraduate Dean for the East Midlands. He has a specific interest in Widening Access to Medicine and is working on a project called “Dr You”. After discussions with him and his team, I have donated the entire sum of money to their project so that they can produce promotional material related to their project.
Really good to meet Nottingham widening participation students and get their input into our WP in medicine campaign to be launched in October. Thank you all for offering to mentor our new WP students #DrYouCareers
— Jonathan Corne (@JonathanCorne1) February 22, 2019
In addition, I have participated in a video with the local council to encourage applications to medicine.
More recently, I have worked with University of Nottingham to promote Graduate Entry Medicine as a career as well as helping make a video for final year students are considering career options.
I have received some great feedback from the college as well as the University for the work I have been able to do with them.