Are we human or are we doctor?

Tuesday 18 June, 16:30-17:30

What do we value most in our doctors and how can we train medical students to become doctors that will combine excellence with compassion? Through her experience as a medical educator at Warwick working with Graduate Entry Students for the past 12 years and through her research on professional identity formation and compassion, Professor Kate Owen explored whether there is a tension between professional identity and common humanity. She discussed whether we can teach compassion, and how we might be able to protect students from compassion erosion. Working in co-production with colleagues, students and people with lived experience as partners are central to Kate’s work and were be a cross-cutting theme.

Professor Kate Owen graduated from Birmingham Medical School in 1993 and worked as a GP in Birmingham, Stratford and Wellesbourne before developing a career as a medical educator. She has been involved in both undergraduate and postgraduate education and is currently Director of Medical Studies for the Graduate Entry MBChB programme at Warwick. Initially working within the GP teaching team, she completed research on GP careers with Prof Jeremy Dale in conjunction with W Midlands Deanery. Having set up QA processes for the partner practices she became Academic Lead for General Practice within the MBChB. She completed her MMedEd at Warwick, with a dissertation on the value of patients giving feedback to medical students. Her innovative approach to education was recognised in her becoming a WIHEA foundation fellow. As Deputy Head of MBChB she was instrumental in leading the teaching team to improving the student experience and promoting better student-staff partnerships; one of these partnerships (the mystery students) received funding from the first WIHEA funding round. This co-working, as well as the values based approach using the “Warwick Doctor” values, integrated into course and curriculum development, and was recognised with the international AMEE Aspire Award for excellence in Student Engagement. Kate is currently co-chair of the ASPIRE student engagement committee, sharing the work internationally. She is also chairs the Midlands Medical Education Group, running a successful annual regional conference.

Kate is a passionate believer in the need to work closely with colleagues, students and people with lived experience and would not be where she is without them.