Better Health For All

Rachel Thomson is a third year specialty registrar from NHS Ayrshire & Arran in Scotland, currently on a six month attachment with the FPH Policy and Communications team. This is the first of several blogs that she’ll write during her placement which will provide a window into the work of the policy & comms team and inspire other registrars to follow her lead! In this first entry she talks about her first couple of months, what she’s going to be involved in, and how the reality has lived up to her expectations so far…

Today marks just over two months since my induction, which feels a bit mad as it seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye! Much of the initial bedding-in period was focused on tying down what exactly I’ll be doing while I’m working with FPH, and working out how that ties in with my learning needs. The team are based in Regents Park, so of course we’ve also spent plenty of time having outdoor lunches in the glorious sunshine…

Lunch on day one: Surely it can only go downhill from here!

I’ll be working mostly on the Public Health Funding campaign, with my particular focus being communications – hence the opportunity to supplement my day-to-day work with this regular blog spot. As the team is quite small and everyone is so encouraging, there’s been real opportunity for me to get stuck in straight away and to lead on several aspects of the main FPH comms plan, which is both scary and exciting!

The main thing I’ll be progressing on my own is the photo competition #PublicHealthLooksLike which I will have a hand in preparing, promoting and evaluating, allowing it to cover a wide range of Learning Outcomes (particularly those in key areas 3 and 4 which focus on action plans and influencing). It seems the perfect fit for me, because there’s so much crossover with my own personal love of photography and the arts in general. It’s early days so far, but I’m really looking forward to engaging with arts communities and public health professionals alike to try and generate a slew of entries that properly represent the breadth and diversity of public health; essentially, what drove us all to it in the first place. (Sales pitch over for now, I promise, but make sure you head over to the competition website to find out more and enter! There are some amazing prizes up for grabs, including £250 and a year’s free FPH membership.)

I’m only working for FPH three days a week and am doing most of that remotely from my home in Glasgow, which is an interesting new challenge for me. So far it seems to be working well – I’ve made the trip down to London for a couple of days twice already with no issues, and am spending the rest of the time either in my home office or touching base with my home board in sunny Ayrshire.

Shadow seems to have grasped the concept of work-life balance a little too well!

I’m finding it’s actually easier than I thought to get into the habit of sharing bits of work-in-progress with the team via email, and they are well set up to support registrars working remotely since that’s much of what they do. So far my main issue has been desk invasion…

Overall it’s still early days, but I’m extremely excited about the opportunities working on the Public Health Funding campaign could bring, both in terms of training and the real-life ‘win’ of feeling I’m contributing to something that could make a big difference to the health of the public.

I’m sure I’ll talk more about the campaign itself in future blogs, but the goals the policy team have set for themselves are ambitious and could have hugely positive impact on the way public health is funded in England if successful. I’m really looking forward to being a part of that, and updating you all on the journey as I go along.

When you know you’re really part of the group – joining the FPH policy team self-portrait wall!

Written by Rachel Thomson, specialty registrar and member of FPH’s Public Health Funding project group. You can follow her on Twitter @rachel_thomson. If you’re a Specialty Registrar, want to get comms experience that will help you achieve your learning outcomes and interested in joining our Project Scheme, click here for more info or email policy@fph.org.uk to find out how you can apply.