It was great to be back at SAM, and for the first time as part of the TakeAIM team. I’d met everyone so often on a WhatsApp call that it was a surprise to me it was the first time I’d met Husam in person on Thursday morning!
The variety of talks was fantastic – there were excellent clinical talks that took me on a journey from endocrine emergencies to encephalitis via Syphilis (a standard day on take). There was also a big emphasis on leadership, teaching and the ongoing need to improve our acute medicine services, leaving a lot of food for thought in what we can continue to do in the future. The talk from the power trio of Doctors Amelia Lloyd, Bethan Griffith and Amie Burbridge was my personal highlight in progressing in leadership as an acute medicine trainee which I could really relate to and the challenges they faced.
Being on the TakeAIM stall at SAM was amazing. I really loved being able to speak to a range of people from medical students and doctors in the early stages of training thinking about applying to acute medicine, to current acute medicine trainees who were intrigued about TakeAIM and how they can take part in the future. There were lots of really interesting questions about the day to day work of acute medics, the use of ultrasound and special skills. We also spent a lot of time demystifying the application ratio and fill rates for acute medicine, which has inspired a recent blog post. Zack’s retro ‘acute medicine career game simulator’ was also a massive hit!
Most importantly, I think we won the best merch competition with the TakeAIM torch being my favourite (and potentially most useful as I’ve already used in ambulatory care this week).
SAM is such a great opportunity to meet colleagues from across the UK, and I don’t think there are many conferences where after a day of excellent talks you can then let your hair down to an ABBA tribute band.
I’m hoping we did our job in enthusing the next generation of trainees and it made me realise there is a lot we need to continue to share about acute medicine as a specialty. We really need to boost the message of what being an acute medicine trainee entails and the wide range of specialist skills that are available alongside mandatory FAMUS and why using ultrasound clinically is such a fantastic skill. It has really motivated me to carry on spreading the word and creating more events – so watch this space.
