I did my post-CCT fellowship in Trauma and Emergency surgery in NUH in 2017, and I can say that it probably was my best professional experience and what shaped me as the doctor I am now.

After finishing my training as an anaesthetist in my home country, I was looking for a new experience and topping up my curriculum with a subspecialty of my interest, and that is how I got in touch with the NUH fellowship lead and secured this post for a year.

It was a true challenge in every sense: it was my first experience working as a doctor in the UK, I did not know how the system worked and the cases I got the opportunity to be involved with as an anaesthetist in ED, trauma and emergency theatres were quite complicated. I got lots of help to get adapted from my fellow supervisor, the fellowship lead and all of my consultant and training colleagues. I had lots of learning opportunities and enough supervised lists, but also got plenty of experience leading the anaesthetic care in difficult trauma and emergency cases; and I always got a helping hand if it was needed.

It was a great opportunity to get involved in Service Improvement projects: in my case I leaded an audit in pain management in emergency laparotomies, which allowed a Trust Guideline to be updated with the results. I also was given the opportunity to develop other of my professional interests (in my case, regional and paediatrics) and I got regularly assigned to these lists.

The experience I gained in NUH gave me opportunity to secure my dream job as a consultant in another NHS big teaching hospital. Since then I had to move back to my home country, but the knowledge and experience gained during my year in NUH in emergent and difficult cases has been the key to successfully manage similar situations in my current practice. It also was an incredible life experience in which I gained friends for life. I would highly recommend anyone to do it!