Story 1
Getting the Ball Rolling
The process of becoming a Fellow of the RCGP began during my GP
Appraisal in June 2006, when my appraiser suggested to me that I
should be looking to further develop professionally beyond the
boundaries of the practice. I reflected carefully on our
conversation following my appraisal and decided to commit myself to
applying for Fellowship of the College prior to my next appraisal
in June 2007.
I was then approached by the North East RCGP faculty secretary
in November 2006 who exhorted me to apply for Fellowship. This
further confirmed to me that my decision to apply for Fellowship
was valid and appropriate and it gave me the necessary confidence
to proceed.
The Process
Understanding the actual process was a challenge, as there was
nobody to refer to who had already completed it, and I relied
entirely on the guidance on the RCGP website. However after careful
reading, I gained clarity of what was expected and began to
organise my portfolio of evidence.
Shortly after my registering my application at the beginning of
February 2007, I received notification that I had been appointed a
mentor from within our local College faculty. This was potentially
supportive and could work well in the future if the mentor had
first hand experience of the new unified route. However, for me, as
I was the first Fellowship candidate from the North East faculty
under the unified route, it was of less value and I completed most
of the process using the guidance on the College website.
Preparing my Application
The actual gathering of evidence was a positive experience. I
reflected on those people and the events which had given me the
opportunities to develop and progress over the years. I recalled
patients who had been memorable in my learning and re-read some of
their words of gratitude.
The next step was to write my own personal statements and this
too proved to be a positive and satisfying task, involving
reflection and review.
I then had to make a decision about who to approach to ask to
act as my referees. I was slightly unsure about this as I was eager
to select referees who would be regarded as valid and whose opinion
would be valued. In the end I approached two fellow trainer
colleagues who were both involved in College leadership. I asked
one of them to act as referee for two areas of achievement
- Clinical Practice and Patient-Centred Practice, and the
other I asked to act as referee for Teaching and Education. In
retrospect, perhaps I would have been better to approach three
different referees for the three different areas of achievement.
This could perhaps have added weight to my application and been
stronger evidence to present to the adjudicators. But, in the end,
it didn’t seem to matter as the end result was successful.
Meeting with my referees was another positive aspect of the
process and involved going through all my evidence and having it
carefully scrutinised. It felt a slightly uncomfortable experience
to produce evidence of your achievements to colleagues whom you
know well and yet, despite this, the outcome was very supportive
and encouraging.
The next step was to await the referees’ supporting statements
and these proved to be further encouragement and reward.
Checking I had all the necessary paperwork completed, I then
sent off the paper copies during April 2007.
I received confirmation that these had been received and was
asked to send the remaining documents electronically. Confirmation
of their safe receipt followed and I was advised that they would
now be sent to the team of adjudicators for scrutiny.
A Recommendation for Fellowship
Receiving notification of my successful application was a fine
moment. It felt like a real achievement to have been recognised by
ones peers and colleagues- both known and unknown – as worthy of
being awarded the Fellowship.
The whole experience has been immensely rewarding and
professionally satisfying and I look forward with pride to being
elected to Fellowship at the RCGP AGM in London in November. I feel
gratitude to those who have given me opportunities to learn and
develop and now feel more empowered to take the next steps of my
professional development. It has given me renewed motivation
knowing that my colleagues deem me good enough to hold the title of
Fellow. Already I have been encouraging other colleagues to begin
the process for themselves and I hope it proves to be as rewarding
and satisfying for them as it certainly has been for me.
And so to summarise the process
· Empowered to start
the process by others
· Personally
motivated
· Registering for
FRCGP
· Getting to grips
with the process and paperwork
· Gathering the
evidence
· Organising the
evidence
· Reflecting on the
evidence.
· Writing personal
statements
· Selecting
referees
· Meeting with
referees
· Receiving referee
statements
· Submitting the
application
· Receiving
confirmation of success
· Attending RCGP AGM
November for formal election to fellowship
Dr Alison Sneddon FRCGP
September 2nd 2007