Vacancy to join the Medicines for Children programme board
The Medicines for Children team is looking for an RCPCH trainee to join the programme board, to take the newly vacant role of RCPCH trainee representative.
The RCPCH trainee role on the Medicines for Children board offers a great opportunity to be involved in the development of evidence-based accessible patient information and to influence the future direction of the work. The Medicines for Children website is visited by millions of people across the world each year and has emerged as a key source of high-quality information on giving children’s medicines.
As a member of the Medicines for Children programme board, you will influence the future direction of our work and support our decision-making activities. You will be part of a small team who work together to produce evidence-based accessible patient information.
The trainee representative on the board will take an active role in all of Medicines for Children activities supporting any decision-making activities. The Medicines for Children programme board meet three times a year – February (online), June (in-person at the RCPCH offices in London), and October (online). Board members are expected to attend at least two of the three meetings. Expenses for attending the in-person board meeting will be paid for and lunch is provided. The board has equal representation from our three partner organisations: the RCPCH (Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health), the NPPG (Neonatal and Paediatric Pharmacist Group) and the children’s charity WellChild. Joining the board offers not only a brilliant opportunity for personal development and networking with some of the UK’s leading paediatricians and pharmacists, but also the chance to meet and collaborate with a group of highly knowledgeable and fun child health professionals.
The role description with instructions of how to apply is available to download here: Role profile MfC trainee rep June 2024
Role purpose and responsibility
The responsibilities of the trainee representative on the Medicines for Children programme board are flexible depending on the person’s availability but will involve some of the following activities:
- to undertake the dissemination of Medicines for Children’s resources through supporting media campaigns, writing articles or attending external meetings or conferences.
- to raise awareness of the needs of paediatric trainees in relation to their training in medicines and in their role supporting families with medicines.
- to feed into the research and evaluation of the programme’s efficacy in improving access to information for families.
- to support the production of the medicines information leaflets for parents and carers.
- to provide medications expertise and pharmaceutical formulations information, taking into account current medication safety concerns.
- to support the admin team based at RCPCH to respond to queries related to medicines and medicines safety, and requests for consultation.
- to identify any potential funding opportunities required to sustain and develop the project.
- to share decisions on issues that affect how the project is managed (e.g. budget, resources, staffing).
- to find and recruit potential authors and reviewers for the medicines leaflets, as well as to undertake promotion and dissemination.
Thank you to our previous trainee rep
The trainee representative role was previously undertaken by Dr Rachel Atherton who was in post from March 2022 until February 2024. Dr Atherton was a hugely valued member of the board and during her 2-year tenure was instrumental in developing new content for the Medicines for Children website. She provided invaluable insight from her role as a trainee paediatrician to guide our work and her enthusiasm and brilliant ideas were greatly appreciated. Rachel attended numerous conferences representing Medicines for Children and analysed some of our previously underutilised unused survey data from our work with families to write a brilliant research paper for publication. We would like to thank Rachel for all her hard work on Medicines for Children and wish her well in her future endeavours.
How to apply
To apply for the role, please send your CV and a short statement of around 250 words outlining your relevant experience and reasons for applying to the post. These should be emailed to the Programme Manager at medicines.leaflets@rcpch.ac.uk no later than 5pm on Wednesday 14th August 2024.
Dr Rachel Atherton speaking at some of the conferences she attended during her tenure as RCPCH trainee rep.