Student associate newsletter April 2009

Contents:

1. Editorial
2. Message from the Dean
3. Getting involved with the College
4. Setting up a student psychiatry society
5. Intercalating in Psychological Medicine
6. Student website
7. Summer school at the Institute of Psychiatry
8. Medical students’ day at the College annual meeting
9. Undergraduate conference
10. Social origins of madness: an historical overview

1) Editorial

Clare Oakley, Chair, Psychiatric Trainees’ Committee (PTC)

I am delighted that over 600 medical students and foundation doctors are now part of our College as Student Associates. The aims of this e-newsletter are to ensure that the College is able to keep you up to date with information that will be of interest and to allow you to communicate with the College and with each other. I hope that this first edition succeeds in that purpose: there is information about three exciting events that are available free of charge to Student Associates, and your colleagues tell you about intercalating in Psychological Medicine and setting up a psychiatry society.

Also, Jude Harrison tells you about her experience of being involved in the beginnings of the College’s recruitment campaign and joining the PTC as a co-opted Student Associate member. She has been an enthusiastic addition to the PTC and is already a valued member of the committee. We were thrilled that 11 Student Associates applied for a further co-opted position on the PTC. All the applicants were of an extremely high calibre and it was a very difficult task for the PTC to vote on the submitted statements. We are, however, pleased to announce that Vivek Datta has been selected as the second Student Associate member of the PTC and I’m sure that, with Jude, they will ensure effective representation of your views within the College.

This is your newsletter, so please get involved and send any contributions for future editions to ptc@rcpsych.ac.uk

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2) Message from the Dean

Rob Howard, Dean, RCPsych

I hope that you enjoy reading this newsletter and that it will make you want to contribute to the next one and get involved in the activities that your colleagues are organising for undergraduates and Foundation trainees like yourself who are interested in Psychiatry as a career. Whether you are fascinated by people and their relationships with each other and the world, want to get into Neuroscience to solve the mechanisms of consciousness or memory, or just want to be part of a specialty that is changing faster than any other in Medicine at the moment - I promise you a lifetime of fascination and satisfaction if you choose Psychiatry.

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3) Getting involved with the College

Jude Harrison, 4th Year medical student, University of Dundee and Student Associate Member, PTC

My involvement with the Royal College of Psychiatrists began when I attended the Student Workshop at the annual conference last summer. The session was informative and fun; it confirmed Psychiatry as my first choice of career. I really enjoyed meeting other students who were interested in Psychiatry: I heard about the pioneering activities of the Psychiatry Society at King’s College London, which was set up 2005. It inspired me to make moves to found a similar interest group in my own medical school at Dundee. I got in touch with the Psychiatric Trainees’ Committee at the College to enquire about what the Royal College of Psychiatrists could offer to students who were considering a career in the specialty.

The Trainees’ Committee gave me a huge amount of encouragement and support to share my ideas on how they might improve recruitment into Psychiatry though the Student Associate grade and student interest groups like the King’s Society. When the Student Associate grade was launched, two permanent Student Associate places were created on the Trainees’ Committee. I was co-opted into one of these positions for a year: I consider it a great privilege to represent the interests of undergraduates within the College.

In the short time I have been a member of the Trainees’ Committee I have learned an enormous amount, not only about training issues and career pathways in Psychiatry, but also about how the College operates as a whole. I have had the opportunity to meet people in senior positions in the specialty, and contribute to discussions and debates on subjects that will affect us, the Psychiatrists of the future.

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4) Setting up a student psychiatry society

Jemma Smith (final year medical student), Kelly Willsher (4th year intercalated student) and JJ Thompson-McCormick (4th year intercalated student), University of Southampton

At the beginning of this year, three medical students and one consultant psychiatrist met in a small coffee shop to share ideas on how to raise the profile of psychiatry as a serious career option among medical students at Southampton. We all knew about the recent initiative by the Royal College of Psychiatrists to recruit student associate members, so we took the plunge of deciding to set up a psychiatry society ourselves. By the end of the week we had organised our ‘launch’ at Southampton General Hospital, which attracted over 35 medical students from all years.

This first meeting included a talk from Dr Julia Sinclair, a consultant psychiatrist who had secured enough funding to run a new undergraduate fellowship in psychiatry competition at Southampton. Students would compete to receive £500 towards training, their own mentor (a consultant or psychiatric trainee) and links with PsySoc into foundation training. We also presented our ideas on future events and our main aims for the society. These ideas included mock OSCE stations run by psychiatric trainees from across Wessex at the end of May for our third and final year members; a mental health awareness week at the end of March to raise the profile of mental illness among medical students and doctors; a series of speciality lectures where students can find out about specialities that they may not have been exposed to on placement; help with organising electives; and focus groups run by students giving feedback on how psychiatry training can be improved at Southampton. We were also very lucky to have a film club already set up by Dr Carlos Hoyos, a child psychiatrist, with its own website waiting to go live! After the meeting we had recruited over 50 members, not including a large number of doctors from ST1 trainees to professors who wished to be affiliated with the society.

The future holds an exciting time for psychiatry at Southampton. We did not realise the number of medical students interested in psychiatry and we hope to maintain their enthusiasm for the speciality throughout medical school and beyond. Please contact us at psysoc@soton.ac.uk if you want to get involved.

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5) Intercalating in Psychological Medicine

Fizzah Ali, Intercalating medical student, University of Birmingham

The intercalated Psychological Medicine programme at the University of Birmingham is available to students after either the second, third or fourth year of medicine and is also open to students studying at other universities. It is one of four strands available on the Bachelor of Medical Science programme.

Psychological Medicine is comprised of five modules. Common to all strands is the module Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods and Analysis aimed at providing a sound basis on which to conduct the supervised Research Project Module in the second semester. Unique to Psychological medicine are the following modules: The Neurobiology of Psychological Processes, The Neurobiology of Mental Illness, Psychiatry and Psychopathology in the Arts. Teaching is lecture-based over the eleven week period of the first semester, and assessed through an essay assignment per module; lecture topics range from the study of aggression and personality through to visual and auditory perception to memory and human sexuality. A typical week, for instance, would consist of the following titled lectures: ‘The psychology and neurobiology of thinking and intelligence’, ‘Abnormalities of belief’ and ‘Believe me, I’m Right’ corresponding to each of the three core modules mentioned above.

This course provides an ideal opportunity for students wishing to explore psychology and psychiatry in greater depth. Understanding the biological models of psychiatric conditions not only provides a clinical advantage in the latter years, but additionally generates an understanding of developments in current research. Moreover, the course offers study from new and fascinating angles, alternative to Medicine. An awareness of the portrayal of mental illness in a variety of contemporary texts, whether Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time or more classical writings such as Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, is not to be found in the core medical curriculum. The study of autobiography and fiction provide alternative perceptions of both medical institutions and health professionals. An intercalated year in Psychological Medicine offers intellectual liberation, broadening thought processes and knowledge.

Those wishing to find out more about an intercalated BMedSc in Psychological Medicine at the University of Birmingham can consult the website and contact the Programme Lead, Dr Lisa Jones by e-mail at: l.a.jones@bham.ac.uk or by phone: 0121 3012367.

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6) Student website

Elena Baker-Glenn, Vice Chair, PTC

The Royal College of Psychiatrists’ website has a separate students’ area which is maintained and run by the Psychiatric Trainees’ Committee. We have received a number of contributions from medical students, foundation trainees and psychiatric trainees, as well as from consultants and the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. If you have not already visited the site, you can view it at: www.rcpsych.ac.uk/medicalstudents

There is information on the site on training pathways, subspecialties, making the most out of your psychiatry attachment, electives and student societies. There is also a section on psychiatry in the media, a number of interesting articles, a series of cartoons by a consultant psychotherapist, and much more. The site is still developing and expanding and it would be great to have more contributions from students.

If the answer to any of the above is yes, then please get in contact with me by e-mail at: elenabakerglenn@yahoo.co.uk

Also, if you have any ideas about how the website could be improved, or if you have any feedback on the website, please get in touch.

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7) Summer school at the Institute of Psychiatry

Rob Howard, Dean and Mark Tarn, Secretary, PTC

The Royal College of Psychiatrists, in partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, is running a Summer School for undergraduates who are interested in a career in Psychiatry. There will be a mixture of talks, demonstrations, tours of research laboratories and clinical facilities, and will include opportunities to meet current trainees, practising clinicians and researchers. We hope that it will be stimulating and fun. For those of you who don't have accommodation in London, we will provide Bed and Breakfast with a psychiatrist's family. The School will take place from 20th to 24th July 2009 at the Institute of Psychiatry in Camberwell, London and is free.

The week will be sensitive to the needs of medical students and the programme will have reasonable start and finish times. There will be an afternoon left free for those who wish to explore London. A free meal with IOP and College staff is planned on the Thursday night of the week.

If you would like a place, and we anticipate that there will be strong competition for the 30 places on the School, you will need to write 200 words explaining how you would make good use of the opportunity before 20^th April 2009 and send it to Charlotte Cox at: ccox@rcpsych.ac.uk

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8) Medical students’ day at the College Annual Meeting

The Royal College of Psychiatrists are organising a half day session for medical students at their annual conference. This year, the conference will be held at the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool between the 2nd and 5th June 2009. The medical student session will be in the afternoon of Friday 5th June 2009. The programme will provide an opportunity for students to learn more about a career in psychiatry. There is capacity for 50 medical students to attend free of charge and anyone who is interested should contact Charlotte Cox at: ccox@rcpsych.ac.uk by 20th April 2009.

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9) Undergraduate conference

Ann Boyle, Head of School of Psychiatry, East Midlands (South) Deanery

I would like to invite you to attend a free one day national conference in Leicester, jointly organised by East Midlands Healthcare Workforce Deanery and the Royal College of Psychiatrists, on 30th June 2009. The event is aimed at those students who may wish to find out more about a career in psychiatry. The programme will include an undergraduate presentation competition sponsored by the Association of University Teachers in Psychiatry.

As a specialty, psychiatry has a large proportion of female consultants relative to other hospital specialties, many of whom have successfully combined the challenges of medicine and motherhood. The day will provide an opportunity to speak with psychiatrists at different stages in their careers who have explored different career paths.

There are 50 places available for Student Associates and anyone who is interested should contact Charlotte Cox at ccox@rcpsych.ac.uk by 20th April 2009.

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10)  Social origins of madness: an historical overview

Vivek Datta, Visiting Research Fellow, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London and student associate member, PTC

The KCL Social Medicine Society and the KCL Psychiatry Society would like to invite all student associates to attend a Lecture by Professor Julian Leff, Emeritus Professor of Social Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, which will take place on 30th April from 17:30 at Guy's Hospital, London. The lecture will be followed by a wine reception and drinks in the bar. There will be a chance for those who have set up their own psychiatry society, or who plan to at their own medical school to talk to those who are, or who have been, involved in running the Society at KCL. The society at KCL now has over 600 members and has organised more than 30 events since 2006. It even has its own subdivision interest group in medicine, psychiatry and society (KCL Social Medicine Society).

Description: There has been a renewed interest in the social aetiology of psychosis, which has been partly due to the failure of the neurosciences and the new genetics to bear out the promises of revolutionising our understanding and treatment of severe mental illness. In this talk, Professor Leff will look at how theories of the causation of schizophrenia changed throughout his career, from schizophrenogenic families and double binds of the 1950s, through his own work on expressed emotion in families, to findings from the AESOP study, a large epidemiological survey of first-episode psychosis.

For more information please email: vivek.datta@kcl.ac.uk

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Page last updated on 23 March 2009 by E Baker-Glenn