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Dr Helen Bruce

National Teaching Fellow 2011 Dr Helen Bruce is a medical practitioner in child and adolescent psychiatry working in Tower Hamlets, east London. Teaching forms a key part of her daily work and she teaches medical students and doctors at all stages of their training on placement with her in the clinic. She also has a lecturing role in both the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula.
Year
2011
Institution
University of East London
Job Title
Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer
National Teaching Fellow 2011 Dr Helen Bruce is a medical practitioner in child and adolescent psychiatry working in Tower Hamlets, east London. Teaching forms a key part of her daily work and she teaches medical students and doctors at all stages of their training on placement with her in the clinic. She also has a lecturing role in both the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. Helen believes psychiatry, and especially child psychiatry, are often seen as 'Cinderella' specialties in academic medicine. This poses a major challenge which she addresses by ensuring the specialty is taught in an evidence- based, stimulating and relevant fashion, as well as being firmly embedded in the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. This challenge has now become urgent, with recruitment levels into psychiatry falling dramatically during the past few years with posts available now outnumbering applicants. Helen understands a medical students experience, especially in a clinical placement, will undoubtedly influence their later career choices as well as their attitudes towards a specialty. She passionately believes improving this experience for students is the key to the recruitment crisis now faced in psychiatry. Helen's teaching is focused to winning 'hearts and minds' in the early stages of a medical career to reduce any negative attitudes surrounding mental health, so it can take its key place in the overall health and wellbeing of our patients. The same issues apply to the teaching of postgraduate doctors for whom Helen delivers a similarly dynamic experience. There has been relatively little research in recent years into the pedagogy of child psychiatry and Helen firmly believes that this again needs to be addressed to ensure quality teaching within the specialty. Helen also has an interest in the teaching of professionalism and how this can best be achieved at all stages of a medical career. She believes 21st century doctors must have key skills in, and a sound knowledege of, mental health and it is the responsibility of medical educators like herself to meet this challenge.

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