AN IMPACT REPORT OF OUR WORK SO FAR
WWW.TAMS.COMMUNITY
THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
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Introduction
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Our Vision, Mission and Values
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Our Why
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2020: The year everything changed
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Our Work
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Impact Stories
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Our Next Steps
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Thank You
The Aspiring medic’s Support (TAMS) is a registered community interest company dedicated to supporting both aspiring and current medical students from a socioeconomically disadvantaged background. Formally established in 2018 by a small group of medical students, this dynamic community has gone from strength to strength, reaching thousands of students over the past few years. This impact report, “The Aspiring Medic’s Support: 3 years and counting”, has been written to firstly look backward in time. We hope to give you a brief insight into how we have impacted the lives of both aspiring and current medical students around the country, particularly in and around the city of London. However, at TAMS we remain acutely aware of the fact that the stories of our students cannot be neatly summed up into statistics and figures. Behind every number in this report is a student with a unique story and journey, significantly distinct from their peers. We, therefore, hope that
through reading the impact stories of some of our service users, you will be able to further appreciate this truth. Additionally, this report has been written to look forward in time. As we begin to scale up our operations nationally with an emphasis on maintaining a presence in local communities, we hope to give you an overview of what lies ahead of our community in both the near and distant future. In summary, through both looking backward and forward with us, we hope that you as the reader will see that TAMS’ story is an inspiring, impactful, and dynamic narrative that is far from complete. So instead of reading from the outside, we, therefore, hope that you as the reader will seize one of the many opportunities to journey with us as we see our collective vision become even more tangible. Thank you for taking the time to read this report. With love, The TAMS Team
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THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
Our Mission Our mission as an organisation is to support every aspiring and current medical student from a socioeconomically disadvantaged background with the necessary tools to support their career aspirations, career progression and personal development. Through various methods, including mentoring, workshops and online resources, we aim to equip these students to overcome the various obstacles that are unique to their lived experiences. Our Vision Our vision is a future where every aspiring and current medical student from a socioeconomically disadvantaged background within the United Kingdom is well-supported both in terms of their personal and professional development. We aim to build a future where these students are placed on an equal footing with their counterparts, no longer hindered by factors outside of their control.
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Our Values Commitment We are committed to establishing long-term relationships with the students we serve that sustain the length of their medical journeys
Collaboration We believe in the importance of collaboration, working within the collective TAMS Team as well as other partnering actors with shared goals
(High) Quality We believe in the delivery of highquality aspirational services for students- at no cost to the service user
Innovation We believe in the importance of challenging norms and assumptions, doing new things in new ways to make a new impact that previously was not even imagined!
We exist as a community because significantly more can be done to support aspiring and current medical students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds in both their career aspirations, career progression, and personal development.
Additionally, a year later, the Social Mobility Commission found that only 4 percent of doctors came from workingclass backgrounds, behind other groups considered to be ones of privilege, such as lawyers and journalists at 6 and 11 percent respectively
Adopting the Scottish government’s definition of socioeconomic disadvantage as, ‘living in less favourable social and economic circumstances than others in the same society’, there is a plethora of evidence that suggests that students from these backgrounds face a number of barriers both when applying to medical school and completing their medical degree.
At TAMS, we believe that these statistics only begin to give insight into the complex and multidimensional nature of this problem. The aspiring and current medical students we serve face several social and economic hurdles both when applying to medical school and completing their medical degrees. These hurdles adversely affect both their ability to successfully acquire a place at medical school as well as perform as well as their peers in undergraduate assessments.
In 2015, the British Medical Association released a report on the diversity of the medical workforce that gripped the nation. Some of the shocking statistics included the fact that 20 percent of secondary schools in the UK provide 80 percent of all applicants to medicine. Additionally, the report stated that between 2009 and 2011 half of all schools in the UK did not provide a single applicant to medicine. .
We, therefore, exist as a community to positively shift this narrative. Raising awareness of the necessity to keep socioeconomic factors central in the varied discourses surrounding medical workforce diversity. In doing so, we believe that both the workforce and the patients we serve will truly benefit from the manifold benefits of a representative and diverse medical workforce.
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THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
Along with much of the nation, 2020 proved to be an unforgettable year for TAMS. With the implementation of strict public health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we were significantly restricted in our ability to physically reach the students we serve.
delivery of our outreach work, mentorship programmes, and seminars meant that we could access and support significantly more students. This meant that within months, we rapidly went from reaching tens of students per month to hundreds.
As a community we were thus faced with two options: simply wait or adapt. We chose to do the latter and today we remain in awe of the fruit that came from this decision.
To meet the rapid increase in demand for our services, we were faced with the necessity to scale our team. The TAMS team thus went from being composed of 4 members at the end of the year 2019, to 20 dedicated parttime volunteers within a year.
For us, adapting to the rapidly changing environment that was 2020 meant a complete virtualisation of activities. As a team, we developed novel ways to maintain the intimate and tailored nature of our work whilst reaching significantly more students remotely.
2020 was truly the year everything changed for TAMS. Much growth was experienced, much impact was made and many lessons were learned that we continue to draw from till this day.
Through an online campaign in April 2020, titled “weareTAMS”, headlined by a promotional video, we were able to raise awareness that TAMS will be continuing to forward its mission despite the onset of a national lockdown.
increase in student
As we were no longer hindered by the various logistical issues faced when organising in-person events, we quickly realized that the virtual
500%
1000% reach in 2020
increase in TAMS team numbers
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THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
Our work as a community is led by the various streams that make up the river that is the TAMS Team. The streams have differing but often overlapping focuses to forward the collective mission at hand. Made up of an amazing group of young, creative, and inspired medical students and junior doctors, they have formulated and implemented a variety of projects to impact the next generation of doctors.
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THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
The Audience Engagement stream is chiefly responsible for engaging with and supporting our service users through our various social media platforms. Thus far they have been able to grow a virtual audience of over 1,000 followers across our various platforms. As a stream, they remain dedicated to providing impactful content that is accessible and tailored to our audience. This content has been delivered in a variety of ways such as online blogs, virtual webinars and virtual FAQs. Notable Audience Engagement stream projects have included Taught by TAMS, TAMS Tips and Future Docs Decide. Taught by TAMS Taught by TAMS was a medical education webinar series dedicated to supporting A-level biology students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The series included a variety of clinical cases to help students contextualize the concepts that students were learning in class, inspiring them to consider a career in healthcare. This webinar series was accessed by well over 300 students. TAMS Tips and Lockdown Links TAMS Tips and Lockdown links were an online blog series dedicated to providing students with tips on a variety of topics pertaining to the
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medical school application process as well as links to high-quality free external resources. The blogs were also used as a means to promote the mental and social health of students. At the time of writing this report, these blogs had nearly 800 views in total. Future Docs Decide Future Docs decide was an essay competition dedicated to providing GCSE and A-level students with the unique opportunity to think about a clinical problem as well as develop their essay writing skills. Students were tasked with the challenge of explaining and justifying their rationale for how they will spend an allocated fund if they were a CEO within the NHS. Special mention to the competition winner and A-level student, Lara Tudor who wrote an amazing piece on what can be done to improve our A&E service nationally.
300 Taught by TAMS webinar attendees
790 views on TAMS Tips & Lockdown links
THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
Lara Tudor - Alevel Student and Future Docs Decide Winner
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THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
The mentoring stream is responsible for the provision of mentoring services for aspiring medics from a socioeconomically disadvantaged background. This is mainly delivered through TAMS’ flagship programme, Trained by TAMS. Trained by TAMS is a 12-month intensive coaching program designed for medical applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds. The aim is to provide students with the necessary tools and skills to improve the quality of their application, placing them on an equal footing with their counterparts. Students are able to benefit from: Interactive webinars on aspects of the application process (e.g. UCAT, personal statement, strategic medical school selection) Critical review of personal statement drafts plus personal feedback Mock interviews with TAMS Trainers (trained mentors, currently in medical school, from socially disadvantaged backgrounds) Access to TAMS Trainers for personal advice and support during the course Following a trial of informally mentoring aspiring medics in 2018, the Trained by TAMS mentoring programme officially launched in 2020.
The first cohort was a group of 6 students, which saw 3 students receive medical school offers with the reaming students receiving ongoing support during their gap year or alternative undergraduate degree. Alen Sully and Darwin Dela Cruz, now medical students, were among those who were able to successfully secure a place at medical school, and their impact stories can be found below. The following academic year (20212022), the Trained by TAMS cohort increased by 100%, recruiting 12 students into the programme. Under the leadership of the new mentoring stream leads, the program has gone from strength to strength, with several students already receiving interview offers from world-renowned medical schools such as Oxford University Medical School. As a community, we are very excited to see how this current cohort will go on to achieve notable success with our ongoing support.
4 students successfully acquiring offers so far
100% increase in the size of the mentoring cohort
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THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
Omolade Dada- Trained by TAMS alumni & 3rd Year Medical student
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THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
The outreach stream at TAMS is responsible for the development of outreach programmes for aspiring medical students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. The aim of the stream is to create a community of students, teachers, and other professionals in the education sector who are dedicated to supporting the career aspirations of these young people. Our outreach activities have primarily been delivered through our flagship event, Aspiring Medic’s Days (AMDs). AMDs are borough-wide career workshops held for students in areas with relatively high levels of deprivation. Working closely with teachers, educational bodies, and universities, we deliver a series of talks from a variety of healthcare professionals. These speakers, from medical students to senior consultants, are carefully selected to deliver a range of talks to both inspire and equip students, holistically promoting their development. Thus far we have worked with over 500 students, 10 different London boroughs, nearly 100 different schools, and nearly 200 teachers.
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We have also had the privilege of providing additional support to AMD attendees through our mentoring programme, trained by TAMS, as well as our newly built webpage area filled with a number of free resources for students. Going forward, our hope is to scale our outreach activities beyond the city of London, strategically reaching more students at a national level. Additionally, we are also excited to further develop our dedicated webpage area for aspiring medics, which will serve as an impactful resource well after our career workshops.
500 students reached through AMDs
100 schools reached through AMDs
THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
Soutwark Aspiring Medic's Day - February 2020
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THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
The TAMS Network stream is responsible for the development and fostering of communities within TAMS. The aim is to promote both the personal and professional development of members through the provision of resources and community. Thus far this has largely been achieved through the creation of a formal network for medical students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. The TAMS Network stream for medical students was officially launched in August 2021. It was established in view of the fact that aspiring medical students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds continue to face a number of social and economic challenges even after successfully acquiring a place at medical school. As a community, we have seen first-hand how these challenges go on to adversely affect performance at the undergraduate level, hampering efforts to promote the diversity of the medical workforce. The TAMS Network for medical students delivers two main projects to tackle the challenges faced by medical students from disadvantaged backgrounds, TAMS Talks and Mentored by TAMS. TAMS Talks is a webinar series, sponsored by the Medical Defence Union and Healthcare Leadership Academy. The aim of the webinar series is to expose the hidden curriculum for medicine, often privy to students from more affluent
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backgrounds, to promote the professional and personal development of our members. Thus far we have delivered 12 different webinars which have been viewed over 650 times in total. Mentored by TAMS is a mentoring program designed to promote the personal and professional development of members through mentorship. Mentees, current medical students from disadvantaged backgrounds, are matched with a mentor who has been trained to provide both pastoral care and career advice for mentees. We are currently in the process of delivering the programme for our first cohort, which is made up of 12 mentees and 12 mentors. The TAMS Network stream is dedicated to building on the success we have seen thus far. Going forward, we hope to strengthen our existing network, further promoting a sense of community as well as launch new networks that further advance our collective mission at hand.
650
views for TAMS Talks webinars
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mentees recruited for mentored by TAMS
THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
TAMS Network Co-director (Kareem) speaking at Enfield AMD
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THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
The Public Relations (PR) stream is dedicated to the development and nurturing of relationships with stakeholders external to the TAMS community. Their aim is to uphold our value of collaboration, working with a number of organisations to move forward the mission at hand more effectively and sustainably. We have had the privilege of working with a number of national bodies such as The British Medical Association, The Healthcare Leadership Academy. Regional bodies such as the Mayor of London’s office and several local MPs, councilors, and educational bodies. A notable PR achievement for TAMS was the delivery of a virtual international medical conference titled, “Today’s health workforce: challenges and solutions”. Working closely with the Healthcare Leadership Academy, Medics Academy and In2med school, we were able to deliver a conference dedicated to exploring issues and solutions related to the global health workforce. Hosting several students and professionals from a number of continents, we were able to create meaningful connections and share best practices for lasting change.
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Going forward, we hope to work more closely with a number of key stakeholders to move closer to our vision. For the sake of our service users, it is essential that we cultivate long-lasting relationships with a number of different organizations particularly within the educational sector to further ensure our activities are better integrated, supported, and complementary to ongoing charitable activities.
THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION & THE HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY are just some of the organisations we are proud to have worked with
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THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
We strongly believe that the work we do as a community cannot be adequately summarised with numbers and statistics. We thus felt that there was no better way to close this report by sharing some of the stories behind the aforementioned figures. Each impact story is uniquely different from each other and we will continue to cherish this more than any other form of success.
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THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
I initially heard a about TAMS through my ucas coordinator at school. He sent us the link to apply and so I did. I was really happy when I got accepted into the program because this kind of help was just not offered at my school since there was usually never enough medicine applicants.
In general, the support I’ve received from TAMS has been invaluable. It just made the whole application less daunting and more manageable so I want to say a huge thank you to everyone at TAMS for helping me get into med school!
TAMS has been a huge help with every step of the way. I remember the summer before year 13 I started writing my personal statement and my mentor Henschel guided me on how to write an effective personal statement. There were countless number of emails back and forth with my mentor with regards to editing my personal statement but after many drafts I was quite happy with the way it turned out. Once I started receiving interviews, TAMS was so nice to offer me mock interviews. Having mock interviews definitely increased my confidence when approaching my actual interviews; it was once the most scary part of the medicine application for me but TAMS was there to help me through it.
Alen Sunny Trained by TAMS Alumni & Medical Student 19
THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
TAMS has had an enormous impact on my journey into and through medicine. I first heard about TAMS when I was in year 11, after contacting the founder, Jacob about my career goals. I attended one of their events, The Aspiring Medic’s Day, which was very informative and alerted me of what to expect in regards to the application process. For example, at the time I was unaware that I’d have to sit the UCAT exam.
Omolade Dada Trained by TAMS Alumni, Medical Student & CoDirector of TAMS Audience Engagement 20
TAMS mentored me through sixth form, providing mock interviews and feedback which I believe contributed to me receiving offers from the universities for which I got through to the interview stage for. I will always be grateful for this company, as they recognised my potential and nurtured it. They saw past my ignorance, focusing instead on my zeal and giftedness. They broke down barriers in access to knowledge influenced by factors such as household income and location, to ensure that I stood on the same foundation as my colleagues. I considered it more than enough that their support resulted in my acceptance into medical school, yet they did not stop there. To this day (and I’m in year 3/5), TAMS continues to mentor me, acknowledging that barriers to equal academic opportunities do not stop when one gets into university. Whether I need academic, social and psychological support, TAMS comes to my aid. I now feel confident that I am deserving of the success I have achieved thus far, and feel empowered to push for greater things as I aspire to be a medic. Over the years, I have become part of a community of hardworking, selfless individuals and truly see TAMS as my family. Now, I work with them to continue to foster the doctors of tomorrow, with the hope that I too can impart such impact on aspiring medics, in the way TAMS did for me.
THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
Hi Im darwin and I live in North London. My family is from the Phillipenes, where I grew up before moving to London. Trained by TAMS was really helpful in my application for medical school. I was the first person in my family to apply for medicine, so there was no reliable help for the application process aside from TAMS. One of the helpful things they did for me was break down each aspect of the application process, such as a course on the UCAT, BMAT, personal statement etc. think one of the most important things they did for us was be there for the applicant. I remember there was always someone I could talk to or ask for help if there was anything I was unsure of during the application process. It was just really nice to have someone you could talk to when you felt unsure if what you was doing was right or ask for help on what you could do better to enhance my application. I am now a medical student at Imperial and thankful to TAMS. Thank you!
Darwin Dela Cruz Trained by TAMS Alumni & Medical Student
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THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
Our next steps as an organisation have been finalised in a five-year strategy titled, National Reach. Local Presence. The aim is to systematically scale our operations beyond the capital, reaching students from disadvantaged backgrounds around the entire United Kingdom. We want to mentor more students, provide more resources and economic support to our service users to really affect the change we wish to see. This will require further expansion of our volunteer workforce alongside significant organisational and administrative change to accommodate for such increases in operations. That being said, our value of maintaining a local presence in communities will not be sacrificed through such scaling. We will continue to develop a series of microcommunities within our growing network. This will ensure service users and team members alike remain acutely aware that they are a person that is valued rather than a number that is counted.
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Over the past three years of TAMS’ existence
A special thank you to every member of the
as a growing and dynamic community, we
public,
have had several individuals and groups come
medical sector and others who simply believe
our way who we are incredibly grateful for.
in our vision. Thank you for your support both
Without
in terms of your time as well as your financial
their
contribution,
our
work
and
some
donations.
impact would not have been possible.
The
with
an
generous
affiliation
with
donations
of
the
your
resources have not gone unnoticed, as without
T h a n k yo u t o e v e r y s t u d e n t w h o h a s b e n e f i t e d from
one
of
our
programmes,
events,
workshops or resources. It is your attendance, engagement, and enthusiasm that truly makes
it our work would have proved impossible. And finally, a thank you to the incredible TAMS Team, a group of medical students and junior
the work we do worthwhile.
doctors
Thank you to every parent/carer who has
They have worked tirelessly, whilst balancing
of
our
events
or
programmes.
Your
engagement with our services has enabled us to
further
understand
the
complexities
of
some of the social and economic challenges our service users continue to face.
coordination
of
one
all
voluntarily
availed
of
their academic and professional commitments, to affect the change we wish to see in our communities. Their teamwork, determination, and creativity have been second to none. I remain grateful for them. To every single individual who has supported
Thank you to every teacher who helped with the
have
themselves to support the mission at hand.
consented to their children participating in one
who
our
activities,
encouraging students to see the benefits of taking part. Your encouragement, advice, and support in helping us draft our programmes has helped us make our work more relevant and tailored to students at their stage of education.
our work. As well as to everyone who will also do so in the future, Thank you. Dr Jacob Oguntimehin MBChb (Dist.) MSc Founder & Director - The Aspiring Medic’s Support C.I.C
Thank you to every Member of Parliament, councilor, national
educational medical
body,
school
and
who
has
organisation
officially sponsored, promoted, and supported our
work
endorsement
as
an
has
given
organisation. us
the
Your
necessary
leverage to reach aspiring and current medical students
in
several
spaces
that
were
previously inaccessible to us.
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THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
THE ASPIRING MEDIC'S SUPPORT
Website: www.tams.community Instagram- @weareTAMS LinkedIn- The Aspiring Medic’s Support (C.I.C) Twitter- @weareTAMS Youtube- @weareTAMS