Val Wass retired as Professor of Medical Education in Primary Care at Aberdeen Medical School and from her international work on the World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA) Executive in October 2024. She has reached an ideal point to reflect on the entirety of her career.
She is a retired GP and privileged to have worked for 40+ years across a range of UK practices of varying demographics. Simultaneously, she developed a career in medical education completing a PhD in the Netherlands at Maastricht University and undertaking roles in undergraduate and postgraduate institutions nationally and internationally.
She has increasingly championed the importance of generalist learning in Primary Care. As Dean of a new School of Medicine at Keele University (2009-2015) she was fortunate to lead a more community based curriculum before retiring to expand in international education consultancy roles. As a result, she has worked extensively across the UK and in more than fifty countries. In 2016 she chaired for Health Education England the report on careers for GP in medical schools, “By Choice Not by Chance”.
Awards include the RCGP William Pickles and RCGP President’s International Medals and the ASME Gold Medal for an outstanding contribution to medical education. In the 2015 New Year’s Honours she received the royal honour of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).