Background Working as a core medical trainee during the ‘first wave of COVID-19’ I had personal experience of the worries and concerns of a trainee and felt that correspondence with junior physicians was poor, impacting on trainees’ wellbeing. As a leadership and education fellow I was able to apply my learning from postgraduate studies in leadership to improve Internal Medicine Trainee’s experiences at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust.

Aims

• Identify key issues and possible solutions surrounding communication between the trust, Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and Internal medicine trainees (IMT)

• Develop and implement a range of interventions and strategies to provide additional support for IMT’s, including providing ongoing teaching within different environments.

Methods Whilst learning about different models of leadership, I was most interested in the ABC of compassionate leadership.

Autonomy and control – I had regular meetings with the RCP tutor to share concerns and anxieties of the trainees and provide answers. I used a weekly email during the peak of the pandemic to inform about upcoming changes.

Belonging - I introduced a ‘buddy’ system pairing an IMT to a senior registrar.

Competence – At East Surrey Hospital teaching and education continued. I set up the recording of these sessions and sharing them on the education campus website, so that trainees can access learning events at anytime.

Results Feedback collected from a survey reported advantages such as clinic support, exam help, career planning and changes with COVID. Being able to access online teaching has been invaluable for trainees to catch up on missed teaching sessions.

Conclusion Developing a more measured, compassionate and supportive leadership has many advantages and can lead to improvements in medical training, improving wellbeing of staff.

The key to improving medical education and training will be listening to trainees and communicating uncertainty.