Jean Fisher

Overview

As Director of Student Experience, my role has two themes. Firstly I am charged with ensuring that the medical school is responsive to student views and evaluations, or where change is not possible trying to help our students understand the reasoning behind different aspects of the programme. Secondly I aim to increase the opportunites available to our students in their extra-curricular activities (as there is so much more to life than just the bits we examine). I head a team backing our many and varied student societies. I help to promote the academic work our students produce by supporting them to present at conferences and aim for publication or prizes. I lead on careers activities, trying to offer events that will suit all tastes. And I oversee the Widening Participation programme and Peer Mentoring schemes within the Medical School.

Outside the University, I am a GP. As my rworkload in medical education has grown, my clinical work has had to decrease, therefore I an now a GP locum rather than taking on managerial responsbiity ina practice.

Finally, around once a year, I assess doctors who have been identified as having performance difficulties for the National Clinical Assessment Service.

Biography

My career path to date has reflected my interests in

• providing care to the most disadvantaged
• teaching and demystifying medicine
• learning about others who may come from different cultures to my own.

After finishing my GP training, I was lucky enough to spend several years working in Africa and Asia.  Since then I have been combining teaching and clinical practice. For over seven years I was part of a pracitce in Huddersfield serving asylum seekers, refugees, drug users, alcoholics and the homeless. This was a population I learned a huge amount from and an experience I try to use to motivate and enthuse our students. I have also used my experience of workgin across cultural barriers in my teaching. Prior to joining the University I taught refugee doctors, helping them to requalify and adapt to the NHS. See www.reache.wordpress.com