Medicine and Disability: Increasing Diversity Within the NHS Workforce

Seminar synopsis

On Wednesday 24 February 2021, we were joined by one of our final year MB ChB students, Georgia Gray. Georgia was born with a congenital absence of her right hand and does not use a prosthetic in day to day life or clinical practice.

In her seminar, 'Medicine and Disability: Increasing Diversity Within the NHS Workforce', Georgia talked about her experience in medicine so far, and the challenges she has faced in both applying to medical school and then being accepted in the healthcare environment as a person with a disability.

She explored her experiences with patients, peers, and NHS colleagues and she hopes to highlight the way in which the profession approaches students and healthcare professionals with disabilities, looking at what can be done to support these individuals to thrive within the healthcare environment.

Georgia will also be talking about how in her time at WMS she has tried to increase the resources and support available to disabled applicants. She will be talking openly about her experiences of studying medicine with a disability, in the hope of encouraging students with a disability to consider medicine as a career path.

Biography

When this was recorded, Georgia was a final year medical student at Warwick Medical School. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Oxford and went on to study public health whilst pursuing a swimming career with the New Zealand Paralympic team, where she competed at the 2015 World Championships. Whilst in New Zealand she taught Applied Ethics at the Auckland University of Technology before starting her medical degree at Warwick in 2017.