Foundation to Frontline: Valuing Patient Concerns through Professional Curiosity, Care and Compassion

Join us for this exciting knowledge exchange conference which brings together UK medical educators and healthcare partners to explore the support of final-year medical students and foundation doctors as they navigate challenging patient encounters which have the potential to generate complaints. Being unprepared to deal with patient complaints can contribute to moral injury and vicarious trauma.

The importance of supporting our future NHS workforce during this critical transition has been recognised through generous funding from the Della Fish Foundation, culminating in this free conference. Colleagues from Edge Hill University Medical School and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman have collaborated to support student electives, internships, and final-year learning focused on patient safety science, moral injury, and complex clinical communication.

The conference will showcase a range of resources developed through this partnership, alongside materials produced as part of the Della Fish Foundation Grant. These include filmed panel discussions and a four-part role-play series following a patient journey from general practice into secondary care, culminating in mediation through local resolution. More Than Minutes will be capturing the entire conference, creating a digital resource to be share with all delegates immediately after the conference.

Afternoon workshops will provide valuable opportunities for participants to engage with and contribute to future collaborative initiatives. Our ambition is to cultivate a dynamic network of colleagues committed to ongoing partnership—working together to co-create innovative educational resources and develop new funding opportunities, while bringing together expertise from across the sector.

Stalls include: GMC, Care Quality Commission, Medical Defence Union, Maternal and Newborn Safety Investigations, NHS Resolution, Patient Safety Learning, Health Services Safety Investigations Board, Royal College of Anaesthetists- Safe Anaesthesia Liaison Group.

Event Workshops

Transition to Practice: supporting student transition into Foundation Year
This interactive workshop examines strategies for supporting students to manage challenging clinical interactions through de-escalation, effective communication, and rational detachment. It uses real-life student cases to explore practical responses to conflict while maintaining professionalism. It also focuses on coping approaches that support student doctors’ wellbeing, with participants co-developing a practical toolkit to build confidence, resilience, and safe practice as students transition into Foundation training.

Patient Safety Science: transforming human errors into positive learning opportunities
This workshop presents learning from Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and final year medical student preparedness for joining the NHS workforce. It focuses on models of learning which are interactive, case based and complex, using high-fidelity simulated clinical skills pedagogy.

Complaints as a Gift: enhancing active listening, de-escalation and self-regulation
This workshop uses a series of cases to illustrate learning from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. It focuses on sharing resources which can be used in educational settings to assist students with preparedness for future practice.

Moral Injury and Vicarious Trauma: Building case-based learning resources
This workshop combines the moral dimension of dealing with patient complaints with learning from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. It focuses on the use of case based learning resources to enhance student engagement with preparation for the realities of clinical practice.

The role of self-regulation in developing clinical reasoning for safe patient care
This workshop focuses on clinical reasoning as a core clinical skill which requires emotional self-regulation. It offers opportunities to consider how these skills can be embedded into undergraduate and postgraduate education to enhance the patient voice and patient safety.

Developing qualitative research projects across final year medical education regarding preparedness for practice
This workshop brings together colleagues who are interested in developing collaborative qualitative research opportunities, focusing on projects which will enhance preparedness for the realities of clinical practice.

Programme running order

Morning Session

Afternoon Session

Register your place to join us for this event.