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.