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Staff spotlight: Heidi Swain

Name: Heidi Swain
Job title: Quality and Placements Officer
Year started at BSMS: 2018

Tell us a bit about your background

My career really started in the early 2000s when a stint in a call centre evolved into a secondment within marketing for a multi-national tools and fixings company based in Somerset. The secondment led to me undertaking my CIM qualification in professional marketing and taking a permanent role as a marketeer, where I was eventually looking after the national trade counter roll-out for a company you may well have heard of – Screwfix Direct. I then decided after seven years that I wanted to leave the Jurassic coastline for a more vibrant and diverse city and fell in love with Brighton, where I spent 10 years working within conferences and events at the University of Sussex. It was after this time I fancied a change of career and I took some temp roles, one of which led me to BSMS as an ‘office angel’. I was then appointed as a permanent member of staff and have been at the medical school for almost six years.

What’s your role like day-to-day?

A lot of my role is about building connections and managing relationships with our partners in a large number of local and national practices. I liaise with GP teachers as well as practice/business managers, finance managers, rota administrators and anyone else who may be involved with the facilitation of students. As well as the correspondence, a lot of the role involves planning the placements and slotting in dates of overlapping year-groups and ensuring the practices are fully equipped with their schedules, teaching guides and of course, making sure they are paid for their time and commitment.

GPs are at the core of what I do, as are the students who need this community experience and training. Once we have the placements and commitment from the GPs, it’s time to start matching students with their allocated placement providers. Since the medical school expanded, I have been heavily involved with the allocation of Year 4 students and ensuring they are assigned to a practice which is most suited to them, depending on various factors. It was then I started to learn about the needs of our students, the challenges for some individuals and the impact that their experience can have on their journey as a student.

What aspect of your role do you enjoy the most?

I love meeting people and getting out to visit GPs and practice teams, and seeing their locations and premises, which vary greatly in terms of size, buildings and facilities. It’s great when you hear from them that the teaching is a welcome break from their usual routine and I hear stories about how the students are teaching them, almost as much as they are them! Particularly where they may have trained some time ago and there are certain topics now which weren’t part of their curriculum when they were at medical school.

I also love it when I read student feedback and their GP placement has meant that they have had a change of heart in terms of career choices and have decided to train as a GP. This is all down to them having a great GP teacher, an inclusive practice team and being a valued member of the team for the short time they are with them. It makes the job feel even more worthwhile knowing that the work we do is helping the future workforce in General Practice.

In terms of successes, which accomplishments are you most proud of?

Before the pandemic, I used to go to as many meetings in the community as I could get a foot in the door. I went to a meeting specifically for practice managers, knowing that I could speak to a lot of people at the same time and tell them about the work that I do in securing more GP teachers and establishing relationships within a sector that I was previously unfamiliar with.

By signing up to daily digests and speaking to many colleagues within and outside of the medical school, I was able to build a better understanding of the sector, the challenges and the potential to grow our network. When I joined BSMS I thought (perhaps naively) that there was a lot of opportunity within the area and thought that there was a huge pool of GPs that we could utilise for student placements. And so, it began.

I was very proud to grow the network of GPs that we work with, both locally and nationally as we have expanded the Independent Placement programme. We have also increased student numbers rather dramatically, so ensuring that everyone was placed with a GP, during the pandemic, when we had both Year 4 and 5 students out on four-week placements, was probably my biggest achievement to date. It was a real team effort to ensure we delivered the number of placements needed.

BACKGROUND IMAGE FOR PANEL

Who are some of your biggest inspirations within your personal or professional life?

I had a female boss, Cat, when I joined the University of Sussex in 2008 as her deputy. Her support, experience and guidance gave me the confidence to be different and not be shy about speaking up and sharing ideas. She always embraced individuality and was open to hearing, sometimes different, opinions and made me feel really valued as a member of staff. We won an award at an academic venue show for having the best stand and we took a bit of a risk with our design and made it look unlike any other! Having a very positive female role model was a real boost to me both personally and professionally and she still has pearls of wisdom for me now.

Tell me something about you that most people don’t know about you.

I love singing and I joined a choir last year as a way of meeting people and doing something that I usually keep for the home and car! The creative director, MJ, is a fantastic musician who has four community choirs across London and the south-east and they do some incredible work in prisons (shout out to Liberty Choir). In November we all travelled to London to sing carols and open the festive season at the V&A, which was quite the stage for a first performance.

What are your other interests / hobbies?

I’m a huge foodie. I know a lot of us love food, but I am passionate about cooking and creating wholesome meals that are good for the brain and body. I undertook a course on food and nutrition and the impact it has on mental health, which highlights the benefits of eating a healthy diet and also the pitfalls of consuming too much sugar, fast food and refined carbs. I usually spend my free time in the kitchen making enough food for an entire village.

In order to eat as much as I do, I need to balance it out and am a keen runner. You can often find me on the seafront (or on a treadmill during storms). I completed the Brighton Marathon in 2017, three weeks after completing (and injuring myself in) a 20-miler in the New Forest. Advice to marathon runners – don’t do a cross country run three weeks before a marathon!