Surgical Society: Shadowing Officer

SurgSoc at UCL has a large variety of remarkable medics. I believe it would be a true privilege to help these aspiring surgeons develop a stronger passion for their chosen specialty, something that I hope to achieve through the Shadowing Scheme. Personally, I have been mentored by a doctor within my field of interest in the BONUS mentoring scheme which I found incredibly helpful and inspiring. I believe I can use this experience to outline clearer aims for the scheme and to confidently identify the best candidates for mentors/mentees. Furthermore, I have good experience with contacting surgeons who are keen to be involved with teaching. For instance, being a workshop coordinator for iNUGSC 2023 required me to contact and liaise with various surgeons that might be interested in leading a workshop. I was able to develop connections with surgeons that I had heard speak at previous talks and use these to identify novel points of contact. Organising an international space medicine conference for Wilderness Med Soc also pushed me to identify doctors within the relevant specialty and convince them to speak for us. I had to remain adaptable, problem-solving when speakers stopped responding to my emails, for example by contacting them using new ways such as social media. Keeping track of whom I had contacted required good organisation. Finally, the professional communication skills gained from all these experiences will prove invaluable for the role of Shadowing Scheme Officer.

I have really enjoyed attending a lot of the surgical society events this year and next year would like to be involved with helping the UCL Surgical Society run smoothly. I am someone with very good communication skills, I currently work at Royal Albert Hall as a steward and this involves me constantly communicating with customers. The customers sometimes have a language barrier, are very confused or irritated at the time and so this job has really helped me to become a very good communicator. Therefore I feel as though I would be a good intermediary between the surgeons and the students as my communication skills would come in handy. I am also currently a peer navigator which requires good communication. I am also very organised. This year has definitely improved my organisation skills as I have been balancing a weekend job and medical school, these organisation skills I have gained will help me to keep up my duties as a shadowing officer. I will be able to efficiently make sure all information updates are delivered in a timely manner and are communicated in a clear way to avoid any confusion. I will also use my organisation skills to maintain the society shadowing list. In high school I used to organise STEM events with a local scouts group and we managed to run several events introducing science to some young kids. These were successful and required communication between teachers, me and the scout group. The skills I gained from this experience can be applied in this role.