Congratulations to Dr Vicki Jones on her ANZAHPE Associate Fellowship.

Vicki is a palliative care physician working at Hospice Waikato who completed her undergraduate medical education at the University of Liverpool in the UK. She has called the Waikato region of New Zealand home since 2009. A daughter and a grand-daughter of teachers, she has eventually circled back to education which feels rather like a homecoming. Vicki currently holds three roles at the University of Auckland including the academic lead of an interprofessional simulation course and coordination of the undergraduate palliative care curriculum. Alongside this she sits on the education committee of the Australia New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine (ANZSPM) and is a national trainer for the Serious Illness Conversation Guide with Te Tāhū Hauora, Health Quality Safety Commission.

I took my first tentative steps into undergraduate medical education in 2017 and have found an area of practice that allows me to be creative and challenges me to continue to learn both as an educator and a healthcare practitioner. I’ve also found a sense of community here and felt welcomed and encouraged as a first-time presenter at the ANZAHPE conference on the Gold Coast in 2023. The ANZAHPE mentorship programme has offered invaluable support and again made me want to deepen my links with ANZAHPE. Having completed some postgraduate study in clinical education and with the support of my mentor, I applied for Associate Fellowship of ANZAHPE this year as I hope that clinical education will continue to form a central part of my work into the future and I would like to do that as part of a community of practice.