I’m Esme, an honorary clinical fellow with Integritas Healthcare. I’m a junior doctor based in the UK, currently taking time out of formal medical training.
I have been a clinical fellow with Integritas since January 2021, having been a participant on the new Health & Justice course run by Integritas in partnership with Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) since Autumn 2020. Through this track I was inspired and encouraged to pursue my interest of working with vulnerable patient groups by joining the team!
Being a clinical fellow is really flexible to fit around my other commitments. I work in a part-time manner, doing two and a half days a week. Here is a breakdown of what a typical day might look like for me:
7:15am: I wake up and get myself ready for the day.
8am: I log on to zoom for telemedicine clinic, it is 3pm in the Philippines and our Integridad team are ready to show us the patients for the day. They have sent us a pre-filled clinic record with the patient’s details, observations and the presenting complaint before we begin. I accompany one of the more senior clinicians and complete the online electronic medical record as we go along. We see a variety of complaints from foot ulcers and diabetes management, to communicable diseases and ENT problems!
9am: Clinic finishes promptly at 4pm Philippines time, when the detainees must go back to their cells. Our European and Philippines team now meet online for devotions - a time of bible study and prayer. This is a wonderful time of fellowship and helps me get ready for the day ahead.
9:15am: I make a cup of tea before I check my emails and come up with a list of tasks for the day.
9:30am: I log on to our website editing suite and start a new opinion piece for our current blog series on torture and ill-treatment. A large part of my work is advocating for vulnerable patient groups, which I do through writing blog posts and raising awareness on social media. Through this I have been able to stretch my writing skills and develop my knowledge of the difficulties faced by those in secure environments.
12:30pm: My lunch break is pretty flexible, and I usually use it as a chance to stretch my legs and get come fresh air after sitting at my desk all morning!
1:30pm: I log on to zoom for a meeting with a colleague I am creating training videos with. We prepare in advance an interview script to record, and once we are done I edit it to ensure it looks professional. I upload this to dropbox for later use.
4:00pm: And that’s me done for the day!
Every day can be very different - sometimes I attend board meetings, sometimes I get involved in other projects, and sometimes I work outside my normal hours to write a statement for a breaking news story. It can be challenging but I have certainly learned a lot and would recommend this position to anyone!
If you are thinking about taking a gap year either as a student or junior healthcare professional and you’d like to be involved in advocacy work, you can apply to join us here! We welcome all enthusiastic Christian healthcare professionals who want to learn and grow with us as an organisation. If you have any questions please get in touch.