Callum Allison
NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow and Speciality Registrar in Neurosurgery
What have you gained from it?
As the North East’s first integrated academic trainee in Neurosurgery, I’ve had the fantastic opportunity of gaining a unique insight into an academic neurosurgical career in the region with all the perks of:
- being supported by both an clinically excellent department
- a university with an track record of producing highly competent clinical academics
I have been mentored by established academic surgeons and as a result have been well prepared to juggle the demands of gaining experience in a craft speciality and keeping an active research output.
What would you recommend about it to others?
The benefits of having allocated academic time amongst the busy life of speciality training has been fantastic. The arrangement of this time is decided between you and your academic supervisor, meaning that it is protected. You are also supernumerary on the clinical rota, allowing more protection. If your long-term interests lie within clinical academia, there is no better way to start off speciality training in my opinion.