Workshop 5

Workshop 5 (mapped to Framework Area 5) 

Progression at a Price:

Facilitated by: Caitlyn Scott and Ian Lee

In this 90 minute interactive workshop we will look at how undergraduate medical students and postgraduate doctors in training are disadvantaged as a result of their WP status and how by not doing more to support them passes the burden on to specialties, services and the public.

Some aspects of our lives afford us privilege and other aspects create barriers. Some barriers can be mitigated for more or less easily than others and some privileges carry more weight than others. Some of the characteristics that can be disadvantageous are protected by law but currently, socioeconomic status is not. How these protected characteristics intersect with each other and with socioeconomic status significantly impacts how disadvantaged or privileged we are. In this interactive workshop we will explore how some of the barriers faced by widening participation medical students and postgraduate doctors affect their abilities to gain parity with their “peers” in terms of study and career opportunities while also shedding light on the wider benefits that a more diverse range of medical graduates bring to medicine and the populations they serve.

By the end of this 90 minute workshop, participants will be able to;

  • Identify potential WP criteria.
  • Identify specific barriers pertaining to WP medical students and trainees.
  • Demonstrate an inclusive approach to supporting WP students and trainees.
  • Identify the ways in which healthcare benefits from the inclusion of WP students and trainees.
  • Acknowledge the intersection of WP and protected characteristics and explain how this further exacerbates inequality.

Caitlyn Scott is currently in her 4th year of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. She previously studied at the University of Dundee where she earned a 2:1 Bsc Hons. in Anatomical Sciences. She is a Board member of the registered charity You Can Be A Doctor and is actively involved with widening participation (WP) projects across the university, including the Early Years initiative, Sutton Trust scheme and the recently launched medical student-led WP committee.

Ian Lee is a lecturer in medical education at the University of Edinburgh where he works on the Clinical Educator Programme. He works in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, has a clinical background is in nursing, holds a PgCert in Academic Practice and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.