The 2020 Medical Education Travelling fellowship was awarded to Stephanie Meeuwissen, Resident Internal Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, the Netherlands; Post-Doctoral Researcher Department of Educational Development and Research, School of Health Professions Education, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Stephanie was the last recipient of the Medical Education Travelling Fellowship. Her trip (and therefore award) had to be postponed due to COVID-19. However, it is very pleasing to hear that she has eventually managed to travel to her host institution in Boston as a visiting scholar. Her report outlines what she has achieved and how the award has benefited her. We hope to hear more at our ASM in Birmingham in 2023. As part of our innovative approaches to dissemination and rewarding excellence, Stephanie will be invited to contribute to our ASMEBiteSize events in 2023. ASME, with its Awards, is keen to support scholarship and personal development and I am pleased that Stephanie has benefited from our support.
Kim Walker, Director of Publications
Post scholarship report
This scholarship allowed to boost my academic career and allowed me to uphold educational research next to my clinical work, a combination I feel very passionate about. This visit also connected me with like-minded people, which made it possible to not only talk about my research and future research and education ideas but also to talk about the balance and struggle we feel when combining different passions in life.
I visited Brigham Educational Institute (BEI) at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, affiliated to Harvard Medical School in Boston, in September 2022. The visit allowed me to visit the center, gain international contacts and learn more about undergraduate and postgraduate education in a different setting. I had a schedule allowing me to plan conversations with my primary host, Subha Ramani, other medical education researchers, educators and clinicians, including residents who also allowed me to join resident conferences and precepting in out-patient clinic.
Research
My visit to BEI allowed me to present my PhD work twice and talk to senior medical education researchers at affiliated hospitals of Harvard Medical School to interpret my research also in the clinical and interprofessional setting. The result is a Clinical Teacher Toolbox manuscript on interdisciplinary and interprofessional education and collaboration, which I hope to submit to Clinical Teacher after working together on this with dr. Subha Ramani and dr. Erik Alexander from the BEI.
I also had fruitful conversations about the AMEE community and learned to understand the structures of AAMC, AMEE, ASME and its journals. I feel like I continued growing during my time at BEI, allowing me to become a stronger scholar in Health Professions Education (HPE) having a better view on both European and American medical education and enlarging my HPE community.
Also, BEI has stimulated plans of international collaboration in the form of co-authorship on papers due to common interests, but also possible engagement in master and doctoral programmes. I am excited to see what the future will bring regarding collaborations and contributions to the field.
I am convinced of the potential to now further build the relationships in our HPE community, expanding from Maastricht’s SHE to BEI.
Combining Clinical and HPE roles
My visit to BEI allowed me to talk to many role models combining both clinical and HPE (research) activities. I am excited to further unfold my own path in this journey and possibly find help from the people I met during my time at BEI.
Dr. Stephanie Meeuwissen, MD PhD
(Photo from maastrichtuniversity.nl/s.meeuwissen)
Since 2020 the Medical Education Travelling Fellowship has been revamped and is now known as the Medical Education Developing Scholarship Award. The deadline for 2022 submissions has now passed but more information can be found here: https://www.asme.org.uk/awards/awards/meded-dev-scholarship-2022.html . Keep an eye on our emails, website and social media posts for the announcement on the opening of the 2023 round.
