Dr Elaine Nelson is a Consultant Geriatrician at Southern Health and Social Care Trust who rotates between their Frailty Intervention Team in the Emergency Department and their Community Hospital at Home Team. She is the Honorary Tutor in Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and co-lead for the QUB 4th year Undergraduates during their Ageing & Health attachment in Craigavon Hospital. She is also the Training Programme Director for Geriatric Medicine in Northern Ireland. She has an interest in Ageing Simulation including Frailty and Dementia simulations and is a Trust Simulation Facilitator.
In Northern Ireland, we have six regional Geriatric Medicine training days per year. We call this NIGTC (Northern Ireland Geriatric Training Club). There are five trusts in Northern Ireland, so each trust gets a turn at hosting the trainees and organising a full day of teaching and training. The sixth day we leave open for a day outside the trusts, and this year, the trainees decided to attend the BGS Major Trauma in Older People event on Tuesday 19 May 2026.
As much as we love to travel and enjoy our study leave breaks at BGS conferences, it was the consensus that we would join virtually to reduce travel for a one-day event. This would remove the need for an early morning flight or a night’s accommodation in the study leave request.
I linked in with Geraint Collingridge, Director of Learning and Professional Development at the BGS, to ask about us attending as a virtual group. This had never been done before, but it had been considered during the COVID pandemic. It was decided that this would be a great pilot. So, all we had to do was book. There would be two options: either everyone could pay individually or we could ask the Deanery to pay as a group. We thought it would be easier just to register and pay separately. The next issue would be tracking us for CPD. There are two criteria for issuing CPD: time spent watching by the attendee and completion of feedback by clicking a link on the website. Both criteria are dependent on the individual's account. It was agreed that I would keep a record of attendance; there would be no half-days or leaving early, and I would update Geraint with the attendee list.
The whole emphasis of our regional training days is to meet as a team, to catch up with everyone and to maintain that sense of camaraderie. So, the decision was made to meet as a team for the day, and thanks to James Irvine for booking a room on the Antrim site for us to use as our base. There were fifteen of us in total: 12 trainees, including 2 of our new ST4 trainees (Katie and Sinead), who are starting with us in August, and myself as Training Programme Director (TPD). With supplies of tea, coffee, and James’ delicious baked goods, we were set.
There were a few glitches initially, but we did receive an email from the BGS with apologies, so at least we knew it wasn’t our tech. Otherwise, the tech worked well. We all agreed that it was better to watch the event with others rather than sitting by ourselves at home online. We could also discuss the presentations as we went, and some of the trainees asked questions using the session chat function. We were diligently taking notes. All in all, we had a great day together learning without having to worry about travel, as we didn’t stray too far from home.
Thanks to Geraint and the BGS for letting the Northern Irish contingent pilot this. We will absolutely join again as a group for more regional teaching, and I would encourage other regions to consider doing the same.
If you would like to attend a BGS conference online as a group, get in touch with the Events team at registrations@bgs.org.uk.
