Isle of Wight

The Education Centre is a multi-disciplinary centre based on the main hospital site.  The Medical Education Team are based in the front two offices on the right as you go in and have an open-door policy.  We are here to give you advice, answer questions and provide you with support. 

The centre has five training rooms plus an Academic Skills Suite used to provide clinical simulation training. Our Resuscitation Team operate from the Education Centre, delivering BLS, ILS, ALS, NLS, PILS and APLS courses.

Modern and comfortable on-site accommodation is provided by Sovereign Housing. There are single and double en-suite rooms available.

For more information including rental charges, please visit the Sovereign website.

The Oliveira library is based in the Education Centre and is staffed Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm but is accessible out of hours via key codes available from the library team.  An IT suite and cyber café are also part of the library offer. The cyber café is conveniently located in the hospital next to the main restaurant.

The library provides an inter-library loan service to borrow any books that are not held within its own collection of about 4,500 books.  Many electronic resources can be accessed by registering for an OpenAthens account, for example, journal titles which are not freely available.  The point of care clinical decision-making tools UptoDate and BMJ Best Practice are available. Apps can be downloaded for both of these tools for ease of use.  CPD points can be collected whilst using BMJ Best Practice.

KnowledgeShare is a targeted current awareness service. By registering with the library regular emails you will be provided with the latest high-level evidence in your field.

Library staff offer a literature searching service and one to one training to search the databases on the Knowledge and Library Hub platform.

There is a dedicated computer suite in the Education Centre which has 24/7 access. There is also a cyber café in the main hospital. Foundation doctors have access to Office 365 and Microsoft Teams.

Parking on site is managed by APCOA on behalf of the IOW NHS Trust. To apply for a parking permit, refer to the APCOA IOW NHS STAFF Permit Portal. Once your application has been accepted, you’ll need to collect a permit from APCOA who are in the portacabin adjacent to the visitors car park by the main entrance.

We have an active doctor’s mess committee who put on regular events ranging from beach BBQs, sailing lessons and a summer ball.

There is a dedicated doctor’s mess area on site complete with lounge, kitchen, shower room and lockers.

The Isle of Wight is served by three ferry providers via six routes and staff can travel either by foot or where required, take a vehicle across the Solent. All providers run a regular service from the south coast to ports on the north side of the island: Wightlink, Red Funnel and Hover Travel.  IOW NHS Trust employees can obtain discounted ferry tickets via the Trust.

From the ferry ports there is easy connection to all main rail links and roads in the UK.  There is a free bus from the Red Jet terminal in Southampton to the central railway station.  By train, London is only 96 minutes from Portsmouth and 90 minutes from Southampton.

Southern Vectis is the local bus operator on the Isle of Wight, offering frequent and reliable links across the island.  Daily, weekly and period tickets are available, and can all be purchased using an app. There is a bus stop outside the main entrance of the hospital.

They say that ‘good things come in small packages’, and at just 23 miles across by 13 miles high, you’ll be amazed by how much the Isle of Wight packs in! The Island has an incredible range of stunning beaches, from wide sandy shorelines to rolling cliffs and awe-inspiring coastal views. We cram a lot in too and you’re never more than nine miles from one of our renowned seascapes.

There really is something for everyone. The Isle of Wight has 57 miles of coastline and contains some of the best beaches in the UK. Sandown, Shanklin and Ryde offer miles of golden sand, with Freshwater Bay, Toland Bay, Colwell Bay and Steephill Cove offering more rugged and quieter options.

Life is better by the sea – whether that’s on a traditional seafront with vintage beach huts, or taking in watersports, a swim or finding fossilised dinosaur footprints.

Over half the island is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with its rich variety of distinctive landscapes. The island is full of attractions, from adventure parks and botanical gardens to a steam railway and a garlic farm. It is often argued that the Isle of Wight is the sunniest place in the UK, averaging 37 hours of sunshine per week, in comparison to a national average of 29 hours. Ventnor, in particular benefits from a unique microclimate that has been likened to the Mediterranean. Island Life means there’s always something going on to occupy the mind, body or soul.

The headline acts are its world-famous music festival and its annual Cowes Week celebrations.

FY1 and FY2 doctors may apply for taster periods in other specialities. Tasters are a good opportunity to try specialities that are not in your foundation rotations, but you are considering as a future career.  Tasters can be undertaken in the final FY1 rotation or during FY2..

Our Clinical Simulation Faculty deliver regular simulation teaching sessions in our built for purpose Academic Skills Suite with a Gaumard HAL sim manikin. These sessions allow doctors to practice and develop skills in a safe and supportive environment.

We also use Oxford Medical Simulation virtual reality simulation, using an Oculus VR headset. With this system, you have complete control of the scenarios you go through, being able to practice as you would in real life.  You see accurate representations of the clinical presentations, treat them and see the effects of your actions take effect. The environment, patient and other team members are fully interactive with artificial intelligence driven patient behaviour, adaptive conversation and dynamic physiology so that scenarios feel real.  Users receive personal feedback, helping put the learning into practice.

We hold our Junior Doctor Forum on the last Friday of the month. This meeting is chaired by a Trust executive and doctors in training. All foundation doctors are invited to attend and raise issues, and work with those in management to resolve them.

Foundation doctors are allocated an Education and Clinical Supervisor.

You will keep the same Educational Supervisor for the two years of your training. Your Education Supervisor will support and monitor your progress over the long term and guide you with your professional and personal development.

You will be allocated a new Clinical Supervisor each rotation. Your Clinical Supervisor has direct responsibility for your day-to-day supervision and provides guidance for clinical issues as required.

FY1 teaching is delivered every Tuesday from 12:15pm – 1:45pm.  This is bleep free protected time. The programme is varied and in line with the curriculum.

FY2 teaching is delivered on Tuesday from 2:00pm – 3:30pm. Small group Clinical Simulation training sessions are held in addition to these weekly sessions. The Foundation Programme Coordinator will advise you of the dates and times of these.

Medical Teaching takes place each Wednesday, with a monthly muliti speciality Grand Round. Other departments such as T&O, Surgery and Psychiatry also have weekly teaching sessions.

We have 24 Foundation Year 1 posts in placements across Medicine, General Surgery, Palliative Medicine, Psychiatry and Trauma and Orthopaedics.  We have 24 Foundation Year 2 posts in placements across Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Intensive Care, GP, Psychiatry, General Surgery, Trauma and Orthopaedics and Palliative Medicine.

St Mary’s is the only hospital on the Isle of Wight, so a wide range of medical emergencies and conditions come through our doors, providing great learning opportunities with accessible and appropriate supervision.

We have a highly supportive Clinical Excellence Team to support with audits and quality improvement projects.

There are many opportunities for you to get involved in Medical Education, such as:

– Teaching 4th and 5th year Southampton medical students on placement.

– BMA Rep

– Working with the Foundation Programme Co-ordinator to develop the Core Teaching Programme.

The Isle of Wight is a beautiful place to work and live, and St Mary’s Hospital is friendly and welcoming, a great place to start your career. Why not come and try island life!

The Isle of Wight NHS Trust is the only integrated acute, community, mental health and ambulance health care provider in England. Established in April 2012, the Trust provides a full range of health services to an isolated offshore population of 140,000. 

The Trust is rated Good by the CQC.

The ‘Investing in our Future’ programme has seen a multi-million investment in our infrastructure.  This includes creating a new integrated mental health and community hub, extensive refurbishment and expansion of our emergency care floor.  A new high dependency care unit and a new 18-bed acute ward have been created following the reconfiguration of existing acute beds.

‘Good team morale, good social network, lots of activities outside of work – sailing, Cowes week, festivals etc. Friendly, supportive atmosphere and approachable staff. Teaching and training is a priority and well supported both with formal and informal teaching sessions.

For all the above reasons I have enjoyed working here and this is why I would recommend others to come and enjoy it’

Staff wellbeing is a priority at St Mary’s Hospital, and we have a dedicated team to focus on this. We have a ‘Listening Ear’ wellbeing coaching service which offers the opportunity to have a wellbeing conversation and have time and space to reflect.

Our mental health practitioners are also available to support and help you look after your mental health.

We offer TRiM which is a peer review system whereby TRiM practitioners within our Trust are trained to identify psychological risk factors exhibited by staff following a traumatic incident, that might otherwise go unnoticed. TRiM originated in the UK Armed Forces, and the model is based on ‘watchful waiting’. This means keeping a watchful eye on individuals who have been exposed to a traumatic event, whether that person has been directly involved or involved from afar.