Mrs. Juliette Murray, Consultant Surgeon - N.H.S. Engaging with children

The speaker at tonight’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Motherwell and Wishaw was Juliette Murray who is a consultant breast surgeon at Wishaw General Hospital. Juliette studied medicine in Edinburgh, qualifying in 1998 and after a number of house jobs, she completed basic surgical training in the West of Scotland. During her higher surgical training she developed a special interest in both breast surgery and paediatric surgery spending additional time training at RHSC in Glasgow. She is married to a fellow surgeon and has four small children.

Juliette was instrumental in setting up the Medical Work Experience Programme within NHS Lanarkshire which now offers work experience for school pupils in both clinical and non-clinical areas throughout the organisation for S4-S6 school pupils.

The programme started last year when Juliette formed a partnership with a cluster of eight secondary schools within North Lanarkshire and it is hoped that the programme can be rolled out to pupils in the forty secondary schools within North and South Lanarkshire as demand for work experience placements increases, NHS Lanarkshire is currently reviewing the opportunities available. In recognising the increasing need for more ‘experiential learning’, and Juliette said the organisation has identified the need for development of new, innovative approaches to support and provide placements that will meet the changing needs of school pupils. Work continues in designing and developing these approaches and it is anticipated that this will continue to include access to work placements for S4, S5 and S6 pupils,

A clinical careers event within a simulation environment is particularly useful for S4 pupils considering a clinical career and the continuing development of a medical careers programme for S5 and S6 pupils that enabled observing and shadowing clinical staff gives a valuable insight into the clinical world of work. The placements have been rolled out, from Wishaw General, to include Monklands and Hairmyers Hospital.

As well as three to five day placements in the hospitals, interested pupils also attend four meetings with Juliette and her supporting team. The first meeting is an awareness session to let the pupils know what the programme is all about. The second meeting is an aptitude test based on the test used to enter Medical school. The third session is about advice in the completion of application forms for Medical school and the last meeting is a mock interview that pupils will have to sit if they wish to become a doctor. It is Juliette's hope that the pupils who undertake the work experience programme will go on to become doctors who will then work within NHS Lanarkshire and be role models for pupils in the years to come. Juliette answered a large number of questions put to her.