Izzy Norris, Reader Harris 2009-2014
foundation year doctor, acute medical unit, charing cross hospital
"My name is Izzy, and I am an old Reader Harris girl that left Sherborne in 2014. Since then I have been studying Medicine at University College London (UCL). During my time at university, I made the most of living in London and all the extra opportunities that it gave me, both socially and professionally. I have shadowed paramedics in the London Ambulance Service, worked as a pitch side first aider at Wembley stadium and have also been fortunate enough to spend a placement with the Essex and Hertfordshire Air Ambulance Trust to respond to emergency calls from a helicopter. I have recently been part of an online initiative to provide teaching materials to medical students at UCL during the COVID-19 pandemic and have been given the title of an honorary clinical teaching fellow for UCL for the coming year. After 6 years of studying including taking a year out to get a intercalated BSc in the history and philosophy of science and medicine, I have just finished my MBBS degree this year, enabling me to graduate and start work as a doctor in the middle of a global pandemic! In April, they fast tracked our General Medical Council (GMC) registrations and I volunteered to start work at Charing Cross Hospital as an Interim Doctor before starting my foundation job here officially in August of this year. I will be working here for a year, and then moving onto Chelsea and Westminster and the Royal Marsden hospitals next year. I am currently looking to pursue a career in the field of acute medicine and anaesthetics/intensive care, but who knows what the future holds! I feel that medicine as a vocation inherently requires the 5 traits that are being discussed this week – Communication, Collaboration, Courage, Creativity and Curiosity, and there are many ways that these have been important to get where I am now. I hope that my story can in some ways be inspirational, but equally I will emphasise that although there is a famous phrase “the harder I work, the luckier I get”, pushing yourself to be successful without appreciating what you have now is useless. You are all extremely fortunate to be where you are now, and I would say take every opportunity you have to be entrepreneurial, but make sure you also have some fun!"
