New Doctors Assistants join fight against COVID-19
On Bank Holiday Monday, the team at Royal Derby Hospital's Education Centre spent the day inducting a new group of staff to the Trust.
We are delighted to welcome 40 new 'Doctors' Assistants' to UHDB, all of whom are volunteer 4th year Medical Students, recruited to assist Junior Doctors on wards during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Doctors' Assistants will be able to use their existing clinical skills to deal with tasks on the wards and assist with day-to-day running of the medical teams, under the supervision of qualified Junior Doctors.
The 40 volunteers underwent clinical skills training on Bank Holiday Monday, led by the Clinical Skills team at Royal Derby Hospital, and are set to start working on the wards across the Trust over the coming days.
The whole initiative was the brainchild of Dr Lindsay Chesterton, one of the Renal Physicians at Royal Derby and lead for re-deployment into Medicine, with the help of Dr Tracy Tinklin, Director of Postgraduate Medical Education, and Professor Owen Judd, Director of Undergraduate Medical Education.
The induction programme was put together in lightning quick time and ran very smoothly, with the assistance of Dr Victoria Wilkinson-Smith and Dr Oliver Burbidge, both Junior Doctors at the Trust, and ably organised by Nav Chappell, Postgraduate Education Co-ordinator.
Dr Tinklin and Professor Judd wish to especially praise Dr Chesterton for her incredibly hard work and dedication since the outbreak began.