Puja Verma
GP and GP Portfolio Fellow - London & Hull.
WHAT WiseGP WORK DO YOU DO?
I am a first 5 GP. I work in a busy inner-city practice with an extremely diverse patient demographic, every day is different. The last 18 months since finishing training has been a steep learning curve learning to deal with uncertainty and increasing complexity in primary care.
I love being a GP, and from Day 1 of medical school I knew it was the path I wanted to take. I now hope to share my passion as a GP tutor for medical students in practice. I have a passion for teaching the students about ‘what GPs really do’ and immersing them in all aspects of the role. I think its really important that students leave medical school understanding how primary care really works and how it fits in with the wider NHS.
I have been extremely fortunate to progress my passion as a Portfolio GP at HYMS. It is a dual research and medical education role. Our current project evaluates the curriculum from a primary care perspective with the hope with can further improve our excellent primary care teaching.
HOW HAVE YOU DEVELOPED YOUR KNOWLEDGE WORK SKILLS FOR THESE ROLES?
I carried out the Academic Foundation Programme in GP/ Public Health. This allowed me to spend 6 months dedicated to carrying out a systematic review with was subsequently published but also become a PBL tutor, examine OSCES, and get involved with teaching. During my GP training I pursued my passion for teaching by starting to teach medical students in my ST3 year. I also carried out an Innovative training Programme (ITP) in Medical Education which allowed me to carry out further research, which I was able to present at national conferences and it gave me to opportunity to work in a medical school.
Before graduating I was acutely aware that I had done most of my training in the south of England and wanted to gain an understanding of rural general practice. I therefore spent the last 4 months of my training on a HEE Rural Fellowship in Yorkshire. I have tried to get a broad experience of primary care this has helped me generate the ‘practical wisdom’ that I need to do my job as a GP well.
Since finishing training I have started a PGCERT in medical education to help develop my teaching skills further.
WHY DOES BEING A WiseGP MATTER TO YOU?
My portfolio role has allowed me to develop multiple skills at a very early stage in my career. All of them have helped me be a better GP. My patients love interacting with my students and find it very rewarding. I find being questioned by the students makes me think differently about the decisions I make, and helps me keep up to date!
WHAT TIPS DO YOU HAVE FOR OTHERS TO EXTEND THEIR WiseGP SKILLS AND ROLES?
I have three tips that have helped me so far in my early career.
Find a good mentor. In my career so far, I have been extremely lucky to have found very supportive supervisors. They have helped teach & support me and given me opportunities to develop my skills. Most of my supervisors were allocated to me through training schemes but more recently I used the SAPC Mentor list to get in touch with local academies of primary care to see what opportunities were available.
Be a good mentor - For every stage in your career there is usually someone that has done it before or is attempting to start. Work with junior colleagues, or students to be that mentor to keep the learning and teaching cycle going. Everyone benefits from support and guidance.
Keep going - even when things don’t seem to be going well. We all have difficult experiences in research, and you can experience lots of knock backs. But the right door will open, and when it does it’ll be worth the wait!