Lifelong learning and how this led me
to set up my own website
Medicine is a great career, as long you don’t
mind sitting the odd exam now and then.
As an ST4 in
radiology – who had a brief flirtation with a career in surgery – I
have just completed my final exam (ever!) and I am nearly 33 years
old. That means I have been studying, on and off, for about
half of my life up to this point. Perhaps the same is true in
other professional careers but unlike accountants, architects and
actuaries, when I reach the heady heights of consultancy in a few
years I will be expected to continually professionally
develop right up until the day I retire!
Fortunately there is no shortage of
educational resources from which to learn. Up and down the
country (and online) we are offered pre-exam practice, tips on how
to perfect our interview technique, communication skills scenarios
and team management days. There is an abundance of
conferences where we can mingle with the like-minded and perhaps
even present our most recent research efforts to the world.
The problem, as I realised a few years back, is in knowing where
and how to find the right event for you. All trainees in an
educationally approved post and all fully qualified doctors are
entitled to a study budget that can be used to pay for, at least
some, of these educational events. Usually, the doctor in
question is at liberty to spend the funds as they see
fit.
So two years ago, with no research results to
fill a poster, with no exams on the immediate horizon and not
really sure what I wanted to learn about, I found myself at a
loss. To solve this problem, I went online; I assumed there
would be a website where one could peruse the various educational
options suited to a doctor at my grade and in my specialty.
Perhaps even compare and contrast the alternatives for the same
type of event. Ideally, there would be a site where doctors
peer review courses, conferences, meetings and lectures… but
no.
I decided therefore to set up my own site to
do just that.
From the ‘having an idea’ stage, there are two
ways to go. You can simply employ someone with enough IT
skills to do the whole thing for you, but obviously this costs
money (or at least a pile of favours). Alternatively, you can
try some DIY.
If the site you have in mind is fairly simple
(i.e. mostly plain text, links, pictures/ video, a guestbook,
perhaps even an online store) there are a number of pre-made
options out there. For example, say you want to start up a
blog or create a web presence for your company, yourself, or
family. This can be achieved with very little tech
know-how. A simple on-line search for ‘web-hosting’ will
provide lots of options. Usually you just fill in a few
details, upload a few photos and away you go. Some of these
options are even free! (e.g. Google sites)
A more complex or a non-standardised site
(i.e. with login/logout, links to a database, the ability for users
to upload or download items) will usually require a bespoke
solution. This doesn’t necessarily mean you will have to
write computer code. Software is available (e.g. Net Objects
Fusion) that allows the user to build a site by choosing the
combination of components they want; the program then produces the
code. This option is far more flexible but is still limited
by what the program will allow you to do. Ultimately for full
control you need to build the site from scratch and as I
discovered, even this option isn’t impossible for a beginner.
Again there are several software programs available to help you
produce the code (I used Visual Studio); much like a word processor
they give you guidance on correct spelling and format rather than
writing it for you. The benefit of this approach is that you
will understand how everything on your site works and unlike the
component-based software described above this option is also
potentially free. The obvious downside is that if you are new
to this, you are going to have to put in some long hours with your
PC…
After several months of hard work I now have a
site I can be proud of:
Educating Medics (http://www.educatingmedics.co.uk/)
provides the largest independent source of postgraduate medical
educational events in the UK. There are currently just over
1700 events listed which can be sorted and filtered by a number of
factors including specialty, location, date, price, whether the
event has been awarded CPD or is accepting abstracts, which career
grade the event is aimed at, etc. Users can also review any
events they have previously attended. Last month the site
attracted around 8,000 visitors and this figure continues to climb
– so far so good!
Building your own website is extremely
satisfying from a creative point of view but I have also received a
number of encouraging emails emphasising that the site provides a
valuable and useful service. This kind of feedback is the
best reason for feeling satisfied with the site.
The bottom-line it that if you have an idea
for a website there is very little to stop you producing it and it
does not need to cost the earth.
Grant Mair. November 2011
Please note the content and
opinions expressed in all case studies are those of the writer and
do not necessarily reflect the views of
the medical careers team.