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Sophie - Patient Committee Rep

Sophie is a Patient Experience Partner (PEP) who represents the patient voice on one of the medical school committees

Why did you become a PEP?

My son is autistic and has type 1 diabetes and I’ve supported my parents with health issues including epilepsy and lung cancer, so I have lots of experience both as a carer and patient. Through this, I’ve developed my own ideas about what makes a good doctor and the attitudes and approaches that support patients towards the best outcomes. I wanted to use this experience to contribute to shaping medical education.

What activities have you been involved in as a PEP?

We had a training day where the patient involvement team from Leeds medical school shared what they do there, which was very inspiring as patients are very involved in designing and delivering the medical course. I’m also part of a group helping to develop tools for students to learn about Shared Decision Making – putting the patient at the heart of decisions about their own care – which I had already learned about on NHSE’s Peer Leadership Development Programme. More recently I’ve become one of the patient reps on the Year 4/Graduate Entry 2 and Year 6/Graduate Entry 4 Committee which oversees much of the clinical course at Oxford.

How have you found the committee work?

The committee has been very welcoming, briefing us beforehand about how it works, and debriefing afterwards about how our involvement in the meeting went. And we were given a jargon glossary and directory of ‘who’s who’ which was very helpful.

We were able to add a patient perspective to discussions about a course name change and student attendance at lectures at the meeting, among other issues. Just having us in the room, I think, helps people focus on the fact that everything in the undergraduate course should be about developing students to provide the best possible care to the patients.

What’s next?

The next meeting is in November, and hopefully we will be able to add more to the discussion as we’ll be better prepared. I’m looking forward to it and think we can make a real contribution as the work develops!

Based on an interview with Sophie in September 2025

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