60 seconds with…Temi, our chief registrar
We caught up with Temitope (Temi) Ayeni, chief registrar (reg) at Newham Hospital, to find out more about who she is and being a chief reg involves.
Tell us a bit about yourself
“My name is Temi and I’m a trainee A&E doctor at Newham Hospital. I started here in August and I’m loving it. I had heard about the A&E department and how supportive the team are before I joined – it was a big part of why I wanted to work here.
“I went to medical school in Yorkshire and then moved to London to do my training. Before joining team Barts Health and the Newham Hospital family, I was training at other London hospitals including UCLH and Homerton. I’ve also done a lot of additional training and educational courses including a hostile training course in Oregon, which included learning how to manage violence and aggression; a course on how to manage people presenting with acute behavioural disturbances, and a diploma in tropical medicine in east Africa.”
I act as a go-between for junior doctors and the hospital executive board and other senior leaders
What does your role involve?
“I work in A&E 40% of the time, and 60% of the time I’m the chief registrar for the whole hospital, a role which has lots of different arms and components to it. One very important arm of the role is that I act as a go-between for junior doctors and the hospital executive board and other senior leaders. As chief reg, it’s my role to make sure that the questions, concerns and comments from our junior doctors are shared with the execs and leaders so they can be addressed.
“There’s also a large QI component to my role, including a project that I’m running with our junior doctors. Through this project, I’m aiming to make QI more accessible and of interest to our junior doctors so that they see it, not as a box-ticking exercise, but rather something integral and important to their work. Ultimately, it’s about working with them to embed QI in their roles every day, to the benefit of them and the patients they treat. If anyone wants to know more about the project, please do get in touch.
“The final part to the role is developing as a leader myself so that in the future, as I progress, I understand what it takes to be a good leader.”
I hope more people will get in contact with me to discuss how we can work together
What’s the hardest thing about your role?
“I’ve only been in the role a few months, but I think the hardest thing so far has been getting out and about to meet staff, and to get my name out these so people know who I am and what I do. While the bulk of my role does involve working with junior doctors, I’m not only here for them – I’m here for everyone. I hope more people will get in contact with me to discuss how we can work together and how I can support them and their teams.”
What do you enjoy most about your role?
“When I do manage to get out and about and meet people, that’s definitely my favourite part. It’s so nice to meet new people, learn about their roles and about how we can work better together to improve things for us, the people who work at the hospital and for the patients that we treat. It’s only by knowing and understanding other people’s roles that we can truly understand how the hospital operates and identify how it can run even better.
“From an A&E perspective, I do also really enjoy the variety of the work here. Newham is such a diverse borough and this is reflected in the people and illnesses we treat in A&E. It provides lots of really interesting learning opportunities that I hope and believe will ultimately make me a better doctor, and allow me to help more people, better, in the future.”
If you could like to speak to Temi to learn more about what a chief reg does, about her QI project or how she might be able to work with you and your team, why not drop her an email .
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