Lessons learned from 2021 International Women’s Day
14 April 2021
Webinar: Fishawack Health talks medical writer training
Fishawack Health joins Peter Llewellyn in his weekly Medical Communications webinar to cover the what, who, when, where, and why of our Supporting Training and Enhancing Professional Skills (STEPS) initiative and our medical writer training programs.
We are passionate about training our medical writers at Fishawack Health, so we jumped at the chance to talk about our Supporting Training and Enhancing Professional Skills (STEPS) initiative at the weekly #medcomms webinar on 17 March 2021.
Peter Llewellyn hosted the webinar, with Diane Sutherland, Group Professional Development Director; Susan Brackenridge, Scientific Services Training Director; Robert Bloxham, Medical Writer; and Anne Errichelli, Senior Medical Writer, telling the story. They were joined by an audience of about 30 people who had ‘tuned in’ to find out about the what, who, when, where, and why of STEPS and our medical writer training programs.
So what is STEPS?
STEPS is our learning and development journey. It covers extensive on-the-job training, mentoring, coaching, our BRIDGE online learning platform, stand-alone and account-specific training sessions, and our bespoke, dedicated medical writer training programs.
Who goes on our medical writing training?
All new writers start on the Foundation Program, whereas those writers with a few years’ experience under their belt move on to the Advanced Program. Both contain varied, comprehensive, and tailored training sessions reinforced by BRIDGE courses and delivered by in-house experts and external partners. The reputation of these programs has spread far and wide in the company, with all writers keen to take part. Take a look at the video on our website to find out more.
Plans are now underway to develop programs tailored to those who are even further along their career pathway.
When does the training happen?
The Foundation and Advanced Programs involve several sessions that take place across the week over about 10 weeks. The dates are flexible, and the Programs continuously evolve to match the needs of the writers and the business. We also have targeted training sessions throughout the year that anyone can join.
Where does all this training take place?
At the moment, it is virtual, but we will move to a hybrid virtual/face-to-face model when it is safe to do so. However, given the success of this approach during the last year and the different countries and offices our writers work in, the virtual element is here to stay!
Finally, to the why
Well, that’s easy! We return to our passion for training at Fishawack Health. We want to support our writers and make sure they have the tools for a successful medical writing career. We believe our organization can only move forward if our writers move forward too.
If you would like to hear more about Fishawack Health and our STEPS program, take a look at the recorded webinar, where you can also listen to the people who really benefit—our writers—talk about their experiences and answer questions from the audience.