Trainees Committee

Melanie holds a National Training Number in Wales; however, is currently out of programme studying in London. In 2020 she undertook the obstetric medicine fellowship at St Thomas’ Hospital London during which time she completed the RCP obstetric medicine credential. Melanie is hugely passionate about the care of women with medical problems in pregnancy. She is the author of the chapter on pituitary and adrenal disease in pregnancy in the online textbook Endotext; on COVID-19 in pregnancy in the Oxford Textbook of Medicine; and maternal collapse for the Oxford Clinical Guidelines. She is also an author of the guideline on liver disease and pregnancy for the European Association for the Study of the Liver.

Melanie has an interest in medical education and completed the RCP Doctors as Educators accreditation in 2017. She is a co-founder of the core.wales, an online education platform for internal medicine trainees in Wales and helps organise a number of RCP conferences, including ‘Call the Medical Registrar’.

Recently Melanie was an awarded an NIHR Research Training Fellowship, during which she will undertake a PhD focused on neurodevelopmental and metabolic risk in children born to women with medical conditions in pregnancy. This work will be carried out at King’s College London supervised by Professors Catherine Williamson, David Edwards and Catherine Nelson-Piercy. 

She is a dual rheumatology and general internal medicine specialist registrar (ST6) who is currently out of programme doing a PhD at the University of Nottingham. Her research interest is rare autoimmune rheumatic diseases and in 2021 she was awarded a Versus Arthritis clinical research fellowship to fund her research.

During her time on the Trainees Committee, Megan has sat as a representative to the General Internal Medicine Specialist Advisory Committee, the Physician Specialty Recruitment Office and the Flexibility and Wellbeing Reference Group. She has also organised and hosted trainee-focused webinars and has guest edited a trainee edition of Commentary. Locally, she has held positions as the trainee representative to the West Midlands Rheumatology Specialist Trainee Committee, and as an associate college tutor. She has benefited from the experience of working across the West and East Midlands, which has given her a better perspective of how different deaneries are run.

Dr Badu-Boateng was elected to the RCP Trainees Committee in 2019 as one of the internal medicine trainee (IMT) representatives. He is an RAF medical officer currently working as a cardiology ST4 in Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, Thames Valley Deanery.

Charles qualified from King’s College London Medical School (GKT) in 2016 with an intercalated degree in physiology. He completed foundation and IMT training at Frimley Park Hospital as well as military officer training at RAF College Cranwell.

He is interested in medical research and education as means of improving patient care. He enjoys working with the rest of the committee to positively shape the future of physician training nationally. 

She has an interest in leadership, population health, data science and quality improvement.

Dr Bouraoui completed a 1-year fellowship in clinical leadership (Darzi Fellowship) and took part in a coaching fellowship programme at the Institute of Health Improvement, supporting learners enrolled in the leadership and organising for change programme.

She is very enthusiastic about her role within the Trainees Committee and is a member of quality improvement, and flexibility and wellbeing committees at the RCP. Dr Bouraoui is looking forward to working with her colleagues to effectively advocate for trainees, improve quality of training to deliver high standards of care for patients, and promote health for the wider population.

She is also studying for a PhD in Medical Education. Her research interest focuses on unprofessional behaviour in medical students, using qualitative methodological approaches.

She also has experience of teaching, assessment and curriculum planning in both undergraduate and postgraduate spheres.

Her enthusiasm for education has been one of the drivers for her involvement in with the RCP as she is keen to liaise with trainees on the ground about improving postgraduate training. Furthermore, her portfolio career has made her a passionate voice for flexible training pathways and improving access to research for all trainees.

He takes special interest in empowering international medical graduates and doctors from the Black, Asian and minority (BME) background.

He enjoys hiking, wild swimming and camping in his spare time.

After studying a degree in psychology with professional placement in Cardiff University, she completed graduate entry medicine at Swansea University. She then completed all her postgraduate training, including starting specialty training in geriatric medicine, in South Wales.

Alexandra is passionate about improving the care of older adults and is actively involved in service improvement delivery, teaching and management.  She is currently studying for an MD at Swansea University, investigating improving the interface between community and acute care, focusing on service delivery and pre-hospital medicine in older, frailer adults. 

She has developed multiple teaching programmes for undergraduate and postgraduate trainees and is an active trainee representative on multiple local committees. She hopes to improve links between the RCP and its members in Wales. She enjoys travelling and gluten-free baking in her spare time.

She is currently working as a palliative medicine specialist registrar in the London / Kent Surrey Sussex Deanery.

As part of the RCP Trainees Committee, Linford has worked to represent and feed back views from local trainees on education and training matters. He has helped to co-ordinate the RCP virtual trainee seminars that were featured during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also been on the organising committee for the annual RCP Advanced medicine conference.

He has worked with the Trainees Committee to publicise the work of physician trainee collaboratives and highlight the role of trainees in clinical research. His focus continues to be on improving postgraduate training for junior doctors in the region, by working closely with clinicians on all aspects of medical training and education.

Dr Gowland qualified through the graduate entry medical programme at GKT School of Medical Education at King’s College London in 2016, and completed her academic foundation programme in neurosciences at King’s College Hospital.

Prior to studying medicine, she worked in the UK Civil Service and as a research assistant in neuropsychology.

At the start of 2022, Dr Gwenter moved to the Wessex Deanery to start gastroenterology and general internal medicine specialty training.

Dr Gwenter has been passionate about representing the interests of trainees for some time, serving as the student representative for both her undergraduate and then medical degrees. During core medical training, she was an RCP associate college tutor and alongside this chaired a local junior doctor forum. Dr Gwenter was elected to the RCP Trainees Committee in 2022, and is also the current British Society of Gastroenterology representative for Wessex.

Dr Gwenter has an interest in medical education and medical leadership and completed a postgraduate certificate of medical education in 2017. 

She is excited to continue to advocate for trainees within her role at the RCP. Given the challenges faced moving forward with the new curriculum, trainee input is vital to shape future directives. Dr Gwenter is keen to collaborate to find innovative solutions to optimise training opportunities, especially in the context of considerable service pressures existing prior to and as a result of COVID-19. She is particularly eager to explore trainee wellbeing given the increased awareness of burnout within medicine. Finally, Dr Gwenter wishes to be involved with the processes which promote equity in relation to recruitment to both medical training and specialty training.

He has served on the Trainees Committee since 2019 and has helped to set up the RCP Trainee research collaboratives portal to facilitate medical trainee research opportunities.

She undertook her undergraduate medical degree at the Peninsula Medical School and intercalated in biosciences at the University of Exeter. She did her foundation training at the Royal United Hospital, Bath.

She is greatly enjoying her role as associate college tutor for the RCP and is delighted to be able to represent Peninsula as an observer on the RCP Trainees Committee with the aim of promoting training in the south west.

He joined the Trainees Committee in 2022 and is aiming to advocate for trainees, focusing on practical issues such as the cost of training and the educational experience of medical specialist registrars.

Having recently completed a PhD in cell biology, he has taken up a post as a clinical lecturer and is also keen to promote academic medicine as part of his role. He would like to hear from any doctor in the region who is experiencing difficulties in postgraduate training.

She graduated in Leeds and moved to London for foundation and core training. In 2018 she moved to Bristol for specialty training after a year working in Malawi. Caitlin has a PGCert in medical education and hopes to develop systems to support doctors through their stages of training, both full time and less than full time.

Caitlin has taken a break from training and is doing a PhD in airways disease in North Bristol.

Caitlin hopes to improve links between the RCP and its members in the south west, but also to improve the curriculum for trainees nationally.

Amy was elected as the internal medicine trainee representative in 2019.  

She completed her foundation training at the Whittington and North Middlesex University Hospitals in London in 2017 and is currently an IMT1 trainee at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Prior to this she did a year as an intensive care clinical fellow in central London, while also completing the Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education at University College London and the RCP. 

Amy has a keen interest in education and training and is passionate about teaching and improving training opportunities for doctors locally and on a national level.

He obtained his MBBS degree from Dhaka Medical College, Bangladesh in 2014 and passed his MRCP in 2017. He has been working as a higher specialty trainee in acute internal medicine and general internal medicine at East Midlands since 2019 and is currently working as chief registrar for emergency specialist medicine at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

Alongside his work at University Hospitals of Leicester, he is currently working as a specialist trainee representative for acute internal medicine at East Midlands Deanery, sitting as a member of the Education Committee and Quality Improvement Committee of the Society for Acute Medicine, UK and is currently doing an MSc in medical education at the University of Nottingham. He also holds a PGCert in critical care.

He has special interests in point of care ultrasound and echo, medical education and leadership. His biggest career aims are developing acute medicine as a specialty and enhancing the state of medical education among the developing countries of the world. He works voluntarily with a group of doctors in Bangladesh, helping to develop acute medicine as a specialty there and has authored a book called Acute Medicine in Ward for the doctors of Bangladesh, three editions of which have been published so far. 

She has worked in West Yorkshire since graduating from Bristol Medical School in 2012. She has also experienced life as a medical registrar in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Catherine is enthusiastic about medical education, having previously held the role of RCP associate college tutor in mid-Yorkshire. During the pandemic she collaborated with the Northern Deanery to produce a virtual respiratory SCE teaching programme. She has represented doctors locally at each stage of her training and is currently the general internal medicine representative for Yorkshire.

Catherine is a mum of two and has been working less than full time since December 2019.

Her main drive to be involved with the RCP is wanting to improve the trainee experience, continue her interest in medical education, support doctors and improve opportunities for flexible working.

His main interests are in medical education, quality improvement / research and developing leadership within training. Having completed a master’s in medical education and a PhD, he is currently an academic clinical lecturer working at the Belfast Trust and Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland.

With a background of simulation in medical training and development of medical curricula and assessment he is in the RCP Trainees Committee Education workstream, aiming to improve medical training for doctors of all grades.

He is a neurology registrar and has recently returned to full-time clinical training following an out-of-programme period in which he completed a PhD in clinical neurosciences at the University of Cambridge. His research focused on longitudinal modelling in progressive supranuclear palsy, as a foundation for better powered and more inclusive clinical trials utilising clinical, cognitive and neuroimaging biomarkers from multicentre cohorts. Dr Street also represents neurology trainees at the West Midlands Specialty Training Committee and is a personal academic tutor for the MBChB programme at the University of Birmingham.

Dr Street has a strong interest in improving trainee involvement in research and is a member of the NIHR Clinical Research Network Neurodegeneration National Specialty Group and the European Academy of Neurology Scientific Panel on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. He looks forward to bringing skills and experience from these positions to his new role on the Trainees Committee panel.

She is currently out of programme undertaking a masters in medical ethics and law at Kings College University with a special interest in autonomy and decision making in dialysis.

Rebecca was elected as a trainee committee representative in 2019 and sits on the engagement and workforce work-stream.

Rebecca has worked less than full time (LTFT) since 2016 initially due to caring responsibilities and later for childcare. She is particularly interested in improving the experience for LTFT trainees and those looking to train flexibly.

She studied medicine at Queens’ College, Cambridge, and University College London, graduating in 2012. She is currently participating in the National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow Scheme and believes that the trainee voice is critical to shaping healthcare at both a local and national level.

She is delighted to be representing trainees in her region and has a particular interest in improving the wellbeing of trainees through mentorship. She also hopes to provide support for trainees transitioning to the new curricula.