College members prominent in medical teaching awards
Governing Body Fellow Laurence Leaver, Doll Fellow Robert Conway and Teaching Associates Daniel Foran and Ifor Capel were among those recognised in the University of Oxford Medical Sciences Division Teaching Excellence Awards 2023.
Laurence Leaver with Head of Medical Sciences Division Gavin Screaton
Dr Laurence Leaver was recognised with a lifetime achievement award. This was in recognition of a long-term dedicated commitment to teaching pre-clinical and clinical students and passing on his extensive and invaluable experience in general practice to over 21 cohorts and for his willingness to go beyond what might be reasonably expected of a GP tutor.
‘As well as providing great support to his students, his model, which involved recruiting, training and supporting young doctors as teachers, provided mentored educational opportunities to many doctors in training.’ [Senior Academic]
‘wonderful teacher and mentor’, ‘incredibly intellectual’ and ‘brilliant’. [Student feedback]
Commenting on the award, Laurence said,
‘I am delighted that GTC is so well represented in these awards, and would like to thank all the other tutors who helped with the college teaching programme since 2004, the many patients who have been prodded and poked in the name of medical education, as well as the 600+ students I have personally taught and who made it so worthwhile.
‘I am really pleased that people who were once my students are now winning accolades for teaching – including at least two fellows of the college.
‘College-based teaching for all Oxford clinical students has been utterly transformed in 20 years, and GTC is one of the main drivers of that. What’s more, the teaching programme is better than ever under the new Doll fellows. Oh, and I couldn’t have done any of it without my wife!’
Dr Robert Conway was presented with an early career excellent teacher award. Robert is Lead for Year 5 (Medicine and Surgery) and Lead for appointing Teaching Associates at Green Templeton.
He is a Specialty Registrar in Emergency Medicine with intention to dual qualify in Intensive Care.
Dr Daniel Foran was awarded a commendation for high-quality early career teaching and recognised for a project on development of a gamified clinical teaching programme and assessment of its value in improving medical student clinical knowledge; competence in the interpretation and management of clinical investigations and data; and student satisfaction with teaching compared to didactic lecture-based teaching.
This award will aim to improve the quality of patient care through the use of novel teaching methods, to specifically target bridging the gap between cognitive knowledge acquired in the earlier, pre-clinical years of medical school to behavioural practice that reflects the real-world clinical setting.
Dr Ifor Capel was presented with a commendation for high-quality teaching.
Teacher of the Term
Separately, Clinical medical students across the University of Oxford are invited to nominate individuals for ‘Teacher of the Term’ to recognise anyone who has inspired them or gone out of their way to teach/supervise/mentor them. Green Templeton congratulates seven of its Teaching Associates who have recently been recognised in this way.
Mr Ali Ansaripour, ST2 cardiothoracic surgery
‘Ali has provided us with excellent teaching this year. He explains things accessibly and has put in a lot of effort to find good patients for us to see for bedside teaching.’
Dr Alice Hindmarsh, Medical bedside tutor
‘Excellent small group bedside and small group teaching over the year for final year medical students. Has been extremely supportive and provided stellar teaching. We are all so grateful.
David James, Colorectal Consultant Surgeon
‘Mr James has been extremely helpful and supportive with our final year medical student teaching. His teaching has been so flexible to our needs and [he] is always able to make time for us despite his busy work life. We are very grateful for his help.’
Hélène Matte, Emergency Department Registrar, John Radcliffe
Hélène taught us about the use of ultrasound in ED. I have never met someone who so absolutely obviously loves their job and everything it involved. Both in the teaching session and on the ward Hélène was constantly happy to answer any questions, kept us motivated and used different teaching styles to maintain attention. Her passion for ED and resus particularly was so clear and it came across and made it hard not to love my time there too whenever she was around!’
Dr Sarah McKelvie
‘Sarah was a brilliant teacher to a small group of us in the run up to 4th year OSCEs. She organised tutorials that were perfect preparation for the exams, but she also engaged with us as individuals and made us feel like she cared. Sarah was especially generous with her time, even scheduling sessions on weekends.’
William Ries, Medical bedside tutor, Cardiology IMT1
‘Excellent small group bedside and small group teaching over the year for final year medical students. Has been extremely supportive and provided stellar teaching. We are all so grateful,’
Dr Mehrunisha Suleman, Ethics teaching
‘Mehrunisha is a kind and passionate teacher who clearly invests a lot of time and energy into the course. She is incredibly knowledgeable and I’ve learnt a lot from her. She listens to and values everyone’s views, giving us the confidence to share our thoughts and engage in exciting conservations, guided by her expert input.’
Commenting on the recognition for medical teaching at Green Templeton, Senior Doll Fellow and Co-Chair of the Medical Teaching Subcommittee Dr Sheila Lumley said,
‘Congratulations to our outstanding tutors for their well-deserved teaching awards. We’re extremely proud of their dedication and commitment to teaching at GTC, the wider university and NHS. Their excellence in education is a testament to our college’s commitment to excellence in medical education’.
Clinical and Medical Education at Green Templeton
See the Clinical and Medical Education Hub showcasing the varied enrichment activities taking place across the college community.
