Year One Student Doctors headed to the 208 Liverpool Field Hospital base in Childwall to take on a series of problem-solving exercises designed to put their leadership and teamwork skills to the test in true-to-life scenarios used by the Armed Forces in their Officer Recruit Training.
The exercises are part of the MBChB programme’s The Clinical Team theme, focusing on developing an understanding of self and others, which is fundamental to successful medical practice.
The School has regularly worked with Professor and Honorary Colonel John Earis and other officers at the 208 Field Hospital to develop activities that bring the theme to life in off-campus exercises. These allow students time away from medicine to learn lessons that they can then apply to their clinical practice and teams both now and in their future careers.
Student Doctor Joe Moody says one of the biggest takeaways from the activities was the ability to laugh at yourself.
“The tasks were focused on leadership and team building and required outside the box thinking. Some of them required a lot of balance and there were a lot of times where I fell off something, and other times where me and my team couldn’t figure out an activity, which was really frustrating.
At times like this, it’s good to keep a sense of humour; we can put pressure on ourselves as students to be perfect, so it’s a good reminder to not take ourselves so seriously.
More specifically to medicine, there was also a planning task like the ones done by the army. The goal was to produce essential and desirable aims for the ’mission’ and an overall plan based on the information we were given.
I really enjoyed this task and thought that the planning framework was a great way to organise my thoughts, something which I will try to implement throughout my career.”
For Matt Deehan, the exercises brought home the importance of teamwork.
There were lots of challenges where every individual's contribution to finding the solution was vital in figuring out how to complete that task, without good teamwork these ideas would not have been pieced together fast enough.
"This is obviously something imperative to medicine, where teamwork is at the centre of all delivered care.”
Fellow student Callum Robinson agrees, “The trip to 208 Field Hospital was a great reminder of the importance of effective teamwork and communication, demonstrating that teams work best when team members are allocated tasks best suited to their individual strengths."
This is seen in the NHS where clinicians from different healthcare disciplines come together to care for patients in multidisciplinary teams.
Listening was Rhema Nwosu’s biggest takeaway from the experience. “Listening to everyone's contributions during the team exercises was important as they were valuable suggestions that helped us achieve (most of!) the aims of the tasks.”
Erin Connell learnt the importance of giving a challenge a go and not being afraid to ask for help when you are unsure.
Working with my team in the challenges showed the benefits of teamwork to solve problems, something I believe will be effective in both our studies and working within multi-disciplinary teams in our future careers.
"It was also a lot of fun and was nice to meet new people within the course.”
The group exercises were led by officers from the 208 Field Hospital who provided students with feedback and advice on their performance as a team, and how to apply those lessons to medicine. The art of listening, of leading and following, and stepping back from a complex scenario all came up as students reflected on the activity during the debriefs.
Director for Year One, Dr Kevin Hamill, valued the leadership exercises with 208 regiment as an opportunity for students to experience what it is like to work within a multidisciplinary team.
"Students were able to look into how to identify and maximise the different strengths of a team and achieve complex and challenging goals by working together."
It’s part of the broader goal of Liverpool's MBChB programme to not only produce doctors that know the information but who are also able to become valued members of the clinical team.
The School’s Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Manager Meg Juss was on site for the activities and was very impressed with the leadership and teamwork demonstrated by the student doctors.
“Everyone got involved with a range of planning and command exercises and it was fantastic to see groups working, learning and laughing together."
The enthusiasm and guidance offered by all the army personnel who supported the day was wonderful, and I’m sure our students will have learnt a lot from their expertise and feedback.
Academic Advisor Jayne Garner, part of the School’s Wellbeing Team was also down in Childwall.
It was great to see students engaging with the activities and each other - there was a lot of enthusiasm for meeting new people and getting to know each other.
"I noticed a real buzz at the end of the day. It was good to see students having a break from studies and supporting each other, and of course great for their wellbeing!”
