Symposium

Throughout his personal and professional life, Dr Alistair Dewar, known as Al, had a flair and enthusiasm for helping others to achieve their best. He believed that everyone should have the chance to be the best they could in their role, regardless of their level, career stage or background, and he believed that support from peers and more experienced colleagues and educators was the key to this.  During his years in postgraduate training, as well as during his time working as an Emergency Medicine Consultant in NHS Fife, Al was actively involved in a host of educational roles and activities. He enjoyed the challenges of designing and facilitating engaging, relevant and high-quality teaching and he made it practical and relevant.  He understood the value of connecting with what someone needed to know and how they were best able to learn - especially if this brought people together to build networks that would outlast the teaching itself.

While he loved his clinical work in Emergency Medicine, both in acute settings and in his roles in professional rugby and sports eventing, Al viewed his teaching responsibilities as a vital part of all of these roles, volunteering to the be the 'go-to' for the new doctors on rotation each August and February and offering to upskill new members into professional medical support spaces.

More specifically, Al was a strong advocate of CEP, earning the playful moniker of 'CEP Wizard' and keeping a regular involvement in a range of CEP activities such as designing and co-facilitating educational courses and workshops, marking portfolios and conducting teaching observations, all key components of the CEP.  Al’s work consistently received positive acknowledgment from faculty and learners alike and received glowing feedback for his warm and inclusive attitude to everything that he did.

Sadly, Al died in August 2021 after a short illness, leaving behind a loving wife and two wonderful sons. Such was his influence and engagement in a range of activities through church, music and rugby connections, Al is missed hugely and he is fondly remembered far beyond the reaches of healthcare and medical education.

We aspire to keep his memory alive by naming one of the CEP awards in his name. The Al Dewar Award for outstanding contribution to medical education is open to nominations to recognise individuals and/or teams who are exceptional in how they support medical students or doctors in training in the same warm and inclusive way that would be in keeping with the values upheld and role modelled by Al. 

Al’s values were focused on learner-centered teaching that prioritised the ability of learners to understand and connect with the subject matter in a way that enabled them to practise medicine in a professional, personal and confident manner, which was well beyond simply being competent. Al taught his learners how to care for people in a way that attended to their medical needs whilst making them feel truly valued, seen and safe.

We welcome nominations from teams or individuals who would like to help us keep Al’s values alive in clinical education.

On behalf of the University of Edinburgh CEP team and myself, thank you

Sara

Sara Dewar

Leadership Development Consultant, Leading to Change, NHS Education for Scotland and Al's wife.