It’s the end of another eventful year for the team at DFTB so it’s time for us to reflect on some of our favourite moments of 2018 and what we hope to achieve in 2019.
Other than writing, we spent quite a lot of time talking in 2018. The opportunity to educate face-to-face always drives us to be better, to write more, and helps fill our enthusiasm meter. That paper came from a talk that Andy gave at the Royal Children’s Hospital in June.
So what were our highlights of the year?
Tessa
“The biggest event in my year professionally has been starting my first job as a consultant. It has been an exciting time for me – working in a large trauma centre with lots of amazing, experienced, and skilled colleagues. The last six months have been a steep learning curve. I’m working hard to be the consultant I always wanted to have as a junior doctor, and at the same time to be a valuable team member for the rest of senior medical and nursing team. It hasn’t all been plain-sailing, and I have made some mistakes. Education, kindness, and humility are just as important at consultant level and I know that this is just the beginning of the next exciting stage in my career.”
Andy
“For me, BadEMFest in March was one of the high points of a year filled with many great moments. Sleeping in tents, sipping Six Dogs gin and catching up with old friends and making new ones was perfect. 2018 is also the year I got a substantive PEM consultant post after almost two years of maternity leave cover. Hooray! ”
Henry
“This year I’ve loved watching the DFTB team think and grow along our next exciting steps, including DFTB18, looking for Lego and establishing DOI and Altmetrics for the website. Between our core group, I know we each spend many hours thinking and actioning the many moving parts of DFTB. In 2018, the crux of this was at our second annual planning day, as the delegates departed DFTB18.
I love the dynamic we have as an exec, and these days only seek to amplify that – as we spend 7 intense hours strategising and planning the next interesting, pragmatic, steps and thinking hard about where the DFTB community fits in the bigger picture of FOAM, Paediatric Medical Education and beyond. Personally, DFTB remains my most successful professional collaboration, and I’m thankful daily to be in the thick of it with Tessa, Andy and Ben, and the rest of our team.
I’m also coming to the end of my most enjoyable and challenging year in medical practice, having served as the Chief Medical Registrar at the Queensland Children’s Hospital. I count myself extraordinarily lucky (and well supported) in this role, which sits at the beautiful confluence of junior medical workforce, education and – most importantly – culture.
I’m proud that each day I have the chance to represent engaged junior doctors within our large, young and vibrant hospital community, as it visibly thrives.”
Ben
“The standout to me was seeing the number of people who did something amazing to make DFTB18 the success that it was. This really demonstrated the strength of the community that DFTB has become a core part of. I really appreciated the opportunities to join Ken Milne on the Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine and see how a real pro develops top quality FOAMed, and to contribute our paper on the management of paediatric status epilepticus to Current Opinion in Pediatrics. Reflecting Henry’s comments above I am really grateful for the collaborative relationship that we have within the DFTB team and the opportunities that it continues to present.”
But really this year a lot of people seemed to be talking about just one thing. This paper…
Watch the story of how we went viral:
We are proud of what we have achieved as a group, constantly adding more and more authors to the collaborative. If you ever thought “I could write about…” then drop us a line at hello@dontforgetthebubbles.com.
Here’s our year in numbers…
If you want to be a part of next years most read statistics then drop us a line at hello@dontforgetthebubbles.com.
Links to our most popular podcast and posts
Of course, we could never achieve any of this without the support of our family and friends, both locally and overseas. We have forged so many connections through the power of social media that it would take too long to list them all and we are bound to forget someone. So we won’t. Suffice to say, thank you, all of you.
