Evidencing Personal & Professional Development, Perspective of a Surgical Trainee

Abstract

Introduction: The author strongly believes that there is a continuous need for personal and professional development in order to keep and improve an individual career path way. It is also imperative to provide evidence of these acquired skills and attributes. According to General medical council, it is a responsibility of every doctor to be competent and up to date. This should be achieved by regularly taking part in activities that maintain and further develop competence and performance. This in turn ensures safety and care to patients [1]. Methodology: The author has had excellent opportunities in his career to participate in diverse personal and professional development programmes. It was important to participate in these programmes to achieve career progression. He would like to share three recent activities from his curriculum vitae which resulted in his significant personal and professional development. The author also had his revalidation last year and found to be fit to practice for next 5 years till next revalidation. The author followed an agreed action plan with his supervisor to accomplish this work. Realistic goals and time frame was set with the help of supervisor. Subsequently, the author had a chance to critically analyse below mentioned three different activities, in order to explore all the achieved learning themes behind these events. The author was fortunate enough to be involved into three different personal and professional development programmes. Firstly, he managed a regional colorectal conference and attained an excellent management experience from that conference. He learnt a lot about better time management. He came to know about different management theories and models and is now able to use these theories for his future management responsibilities. Then he had a communication challenge and difficulty in theatre. He was able to resolve that issue with his strong communication skills. He developed his communication skills and assertiveness with the help of this first-hand experience and different communication models. Lastly, the author had a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate and develop his leadership and team working skills in an International Conference. He realized that leader needs to be a role model for his team and should be leaded by his example. He observed and demonstrated different roles of a leader according to needs of his team. He also learnt about different leadership theories and models. He also acquired a good understanding of a team development. Conclusion: It is extremely important for every health care individual to have personal and professional development. The author recommends that lessons learnt from the author’s experience and results can be applied in a broad generalised way to achieve development. It is crucial for us to keep a structured record of this development and provide evidence of the improvement. In short, it was an extremely useful exercise for the author that resulted in significant lifelong development in his management, communication and leadership attributes.