Fellows are recruited from a wide range of backgrounds including nursing, pharmacy, medicine, speech and language therapy, dietetics, orthotics, and physiotherapy.
As part of NHS Greater Manchester fellowship, Paediatric Doctor Alice Willson, and Community Midwife / Master of Public Health Jen Pountain, are seconded to Population Health two days a week to experience a mixture of blended and experiential learning and support the development of population health strategies across the wider NHS community.
Hear more about Alice and Jen and their fellowships below, or for more information visit Population Health Fellowship | Health Education England (hee.nhs.uk).
Introducing Alice Willson, Paediatric Doctor, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital
As a paediatric doctor I’m passionate about improving the lives of children and young people – and so when the opportunity of a population health fellowship came up, it was a no brainer for me.
I have always been interested in seeing the ‘bigger picture’ with a particular interest in medical education and global health. I once lived in Rwanda for a year working to reduce the neonatal mortality rate.
Now as an ST6 paediatric registrar in the respiratory department at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, with many of the patients I see presenting symptoms linked to the conditions in which they are living (e.g., asthma increased by poor housing conditions) I was keen to broaden my understanding of the wider drivers behind ill health.
Based at NHS Greater Manchester under the Building Back Fairer remit I have spent time networking to understand the roles and structure of population health, running workshops for children and young people (CYP) and bringing a frontline clinical perspective to various working groups (BBF and CYP Asthma).
Excitingly, I am now part of the Asthma Friendly Schools pilot providing clinical advice and working as well as alignment with other population health initiatives (clean air and healthy eating).
As well as a huge amount of knowledge sharing, this experience has been brilliant in helping me build connections with the local network of public health registrars/fellows, local and regional paediatric training, and nationally, alongside, British Association of Child and Adolescent Public Health.
I wholeheartedly recommend the fellowship to other non-public health professionals as I believe by working together across health and social care, we can dramatically improve patient lives in Greater Manchester.
Introducing Jen Pountain, Community Midwife RM Bmidwif (Hons) MPH – Master of Public Health and Global Health, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust
Based at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, I practice clinically as a community midwife, with an academic and clinical interest in the role of public health in maternity care policy and implementation.
With a master’s in public and global health, my specialism and passion is to support women’s health by targeting health inequities in the system and society which relate to gender, ethnicity and poverty.
My aim is to narrow the gender gap in health, by developing strategies which empower and advocate for women and families and embed them into the health and care system. I am passionate about how community development theory can help to increase health and wellbeing using community assets instead on focusing on deficits.
I applied for the Population Health Fellowship programme as I wanted to experience collaborative working within the Integrated Care System. Moreover, how the maternity care system can benefit from a population health approach. I wanted to utilise my public health background and develop my skills set as a population health practitioner.
I do not want my fellowship to end! I have relished my time so far working alongside Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership Public Health team and I hope to continue to network, reduce silo working within maternity care and public health agencies, for the benefit of the nation’s health and wellbeing.
