How would you describe the past year? Challenging? Creative? Isolating? Inspiring? Disconcerting? Developing? Or simply unexpected?
None of us could have predicted how long it would be before we would be able to use the coffee machine in Cedar House again. Dr Victoria Tippett’s vlog in this month’s newsletter gives a sense of the evolving journey we began last March and the constant turns in the road that demanded something more of us.
For me, the word that I would use to describe the year is ‘revealing’. I have learned how much I miss the bustle of being with you and School staff, in the building and at your events.
I have learned what an adaptable and committed team your School staff are, as I watched them juggling toddlers and spreadsheets, mastering unfamiliar technologies and thinking of countless creative ways to deliver your course, despite the restrictions and the working conditions they had to contend with.
I have seen the pulsing heart of our School, as an integral part of the NHS – with its shared total commitment to patient care and to the future doctors who will deliver this.
I could never have imagined how much your placement colleagues would rise to the challenge of protecting you and your learning, or the clinical skills and anatomy staff commitment to your training, over any personal concerns. Most of all, this year has revealed what is special about you, as student doctors and members of our medical community.
The NHS called, and hundreds of you responded - volunteering, vaccinating and fund raising.
You have shown your ability to make the most of new learning situations and you have used your natural inventiveness to lighten the darker days that we have faced together, finding new ways to connect safely, inspire those around you and have fun. Indeed as I write this, I am basking in the warm glow created from watching the Artefacts Virtual Musical Showcase, I am enjoying seeing your imaginative entries for the Da Vinci competition (not too late to enter over Easter!) and I am looking forward to the interesting ideas being shared at the Y1 ‘Dragon’s Den’ Leadership Challenge.
And so, in this unusual anniversary week, that none of us could have foreseen last March, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for the many ways that you have helped me keep on the rails, as we rode this rollercoaster of a year together. Your resilience, camaraderie, laughter and kindness has meant a great deal to me and I know it has also been greatly appreciated by your School staff and placement colleagues.
Whatever this next year brings, I know that the community of staff and students, that is the Liverpool School of Medicine, will make the most of it and I am looking forward very much to sharing it with you.