Anaesthesia 2025 podcast - Human Factors - Hewitt lectureship
In this podcast, recorded at our Anaesthesia 2025 conference, Professor and Consultant Anaesthetist Helen Higham talks to Dr Paul Southall about her work and career improving the the 'complex and adaptive system' of anaesthesia often given by its shorthand, 'human factors'.
For this work Helen was awarded the Hewitt Lectureship, given to established senior clinicians, academic experts or pioneers in their fields who have advanced the science or art of anaesthetic practice.
Paul and Helen discuss her research interests, which include human factors and simulation-based education in healthcare, and her current projects focused on systems-based approaches to safety in primary care, human factors in low to middle income healthcare settings and the use of virtual reality to train healthcare professionals.
Helen gives us an insight into her career and professional life, and bangs the drum for the importance of quality improvement, simulation and team-based learning and how central anaesthesia and its culture is to these practices in medicine.
Recorded 20 May 2025
Related information:
OxSTAR - Helen Higham
Lectureships | The Royal College of Anaesthetists
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The experience of becoming a consultant anaesthetist
In this podcast Dr Jennifer Proc talks to Dr Tara Byott and Dr Sarah Muldoon about their experiences becoming consultant anaesthetists.
They discuss how Sarah and Tara became consultants, and Jennifer's own experience working towards that, and cover topics including: the first appraisal, preparing for managing anaesthetists in training, handling expectations with surgeons and patients alike, imposter syndrome, advocacy for theatre teams, and more.
Tara and Sarah provide lots of advice drawn from their personal experiences, much of it not exclusive to the consultant role, with reflections on authority, responsibility, and gender that may be applicable to anyone moving to a more senior position.
Recorded 9 September 2025
Related information:
Juggling the list – patient care and training opportunities | The Royal College of Anaesthetists
Making the most of stage 2 and 3 training
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CPOC patient safety 2025 prizewinner podcast
In this podcast Dr Hattie White talks to CPOC Director David Selwyn and CPOC Fellow Claire Frank about her prize winning presentation “Improving Clinical Incident Reporting in a District General Hospital Anaesthetic Department.” They discuss Hattie’s QI work, how she came up with the idea, the challenges and her contributions to perioperative care as a result. We hope this will be of interest to listeners who are thinking about embarking upon their own QI project.
Related information:
Dr Hattie White's prize-winning poster
Patient Safety in Perioperative Practice 2026 event
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Portfolio pathway - episode 5: Assessor viewpoint
This is a special podcast mini-series focusing on the Portfolio Pathway (formerly CESR) programme, the process that enables doctors who don't hold a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) to join the GMC's specialist register and therefore be eligible to take up substantive consultant posts.
We have created this mini-series to support those already undertaking the programme or for those interested in following the programme. The series consists of 5 episodes as below:
Introduction to the Portfolio Pathways programme and this series
Non-Clinical domains
Clinical domains
SIAs
Assessor viewpoint
Related information:
RCoA portfolio pathway page
Information for portfolio pathway applications
Specialty Specific Guidance
Special Interest Area Guidance
Lifelong Learning Platform (LLP)
LLP Webinar
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Portfolio pathway - episode 4: SIAs
This is a special podcast mini-series focusing on the Portfolio Pathway (formerly CESR) programme, the process that enables doctors who don't hold a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) to join the GMC's specialist register and therefore be eligible to take up substantive consultant posts.
We have created this mini-series to support those already undertaking the programme or for those interested in following the programme. The series consists of 5 episodes as below:
Introduction to the Portfolio Pathways programme and this series
Non-Clinical domains
Clinical domains
SIAs
Assessor viewpoint
Related information:
RCoA portfolio pathway page
Information for portfolio pathway applications
Specialty Specific Guidance
Special Interest Area Guidance
Lifelong Learning Platform (LLP)
LLP Webinar
Anaesthesia on Air is the Podcast from the Royal College of Anaesthetists. The Royal College of Anaesthetists is the professional body responsible for the speciality throughout the UK.
We are the third largest Medical Royal College in the UK by membership. With a combined membership of 23,000 fellows and members, we ensure the quality of patient care by safeguarding standards in the three specialities of anaesthesia, intensive care and pain medicine.
We are always looking for new content, so if you have any ideas, or would like to get involved, please contact us at: education-content.
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