Spotlight on Tegwen Ecclestone, Speciality Trainee Registrar

Tegwen Ecclestone, Associate College Tutor and Speciality Trainee Registrar, offers clinical training and skills support to internal medicine trainees (IMTs) and medical registrars.

“I have a keen interest in training and education. This all started when I’d take small groups of medical students to bedsides and teach them as a Clinical Supervisor,” said Tegwen.

“Whilst undertaking a Masters in Medical Education however, I learnt that it’s not just about how you teach but how to set up a system for teaching, how to regulate teaching and how to make it accessible”.

Alongside College Tutor Prasanna Sankaran, Tegwen offers access to skills training, such as putting tubes in abdomens, taking fluid samples from knees, lumbar punctures and more.

“If you’re a registrar or IMT in a certain department it can be hard to learn skills from a different specialty so we are setting up ways you can access that training for your portfolio,” added Tegwen.

“For example during the pandemic, many registrars were keen to have enhanced training in non-invasive ventilation so they could offer more support on the Covid wards. It is fantastic we are now providing courses for this.

“We also have a WhatsApp group for joint aspirations that all registrars are able to join. Then we post opportunities to learn this skill into there and it’s on first-come-first-serve basis. In time we hope to have these groups for all core skills.”