I’ve recently had A LOT of conversations with people where the other person says, with some considerable exasperation, ”I’m 40+ and….” describing a situation where they are about to complete a substantial period of growth and achievement only to find themselves on a cliff edge that seems to miss the bridge.
Continue readingOne thing that, on hindsight, I believe has been really challenging about the clinical academic career is the not knowing what the journey should look like. The lack of markers that would allow me make sense of where I am, how far have I come, how long will it be, or even where will I eventually end up.
Continue readingWhen I got my PhD, I had two focuses. To avoid falling off some sudden edge that would leave me jobless for life. And to avoid the comfy slippers.
A post by Katrina Bannigan. A superfan is the enthusiastic fan who queues for tickets days in advance, follows the object of their passion tirelessly and continues their support through good times and bad. Superfans are quite extreme because of their level of dedication. You may find it strange that I am suggesting super fandom as an approach to facilitating change within a professional context but I genuinely believe it is going to take the dedication of the superfan to pave the way to the clinical academic role becoming an accepted and established career pathway within the Allied Health Professions (AHPs).
Continue readingAre you a clinical academic feeling you’ve not quite managed to make the clinical academic equation work? Feeling a bit sad, guilty, inadequate? For sure it must be you not getting, since so many others seem to have cracked it?
Continue readingWhat can I say? By that I mean some combination of, what is meaningful for me to say? What is interesting to say? — And, importantly, what am I allowed to say?
Continue readingFor a range of reasons there were no posts on this blog in 2020. The main reason was that I’d felt less and less comfortable writing about anything a clinician academic. Because, I no longer felt like one. Not since 09/2019.
Continue readingIn the past 15 years, I’ve worked with a range of NHS managers at different levels across a number of organisations. I’ve also mentored a sizable pool of further clinician academics working with their managers. Reflecting back, what realisations would I like to share with both NHS managers and clinical academics?
Do you feel a “a serious lack of organisational and professional value” placed on NMAHP clinical academic skills, knowledge and, ultimately, roles that you try to advance? Continue reading
From as soon as one goes anywhere near the clinical academic step ladder one is told that funders look for leaders, and that one needs to start to become one. From there on it becomes a case of developing one’s leadership skills, competencies and roles. Yet, ironically, I never expected to arrive to the point of actually being one.
Clinician Academic 