Cabinet responsibility

What 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?

New Year, New Tricks…

For 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.

NHS managers and clinical academics: a match made in…?

In 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?

Joint clinical academic roles: sharing learning

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?

What am I, and what should I do?

What am I? Where am I going? Am I actually achieving anything worth while? What should I be doing?

These questions have grown louder and louder in my mind over the past year, and as I recently read Jemma’s post it did not go un-noticed that some of these might be questions inherently built into being a clinical academic. So I thought I would share my ponderings of these questions, in what seems to have turned out a somewhat personal post.

Start that journey today

Nine years ago I attended a big professional conference at which I met a pair. That pair changed my life and career in profound ways, and today has in many ways been a culmination of that change.

I’ve told this story many times, but never this publicly. Now it feels apt to tell.

Are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.

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.

Embarrassed by success

Do you sometimes find your (academic or clinical) success embarrasing? Even when you know it’s well deserved and you are proud of what you’ve done or achieved?

What kind of a leader do I want to be?

I’m one of those people who believe one needs to be a leader, not just act like one. I’m happy for others to differ, but I believe being a leader is a full-time always-on kind of a thing, not just a role to take on in some situations.