Change and uncertainty
 I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and
the Psychiatric Trainees’ Committee (PTC). The PTC representatives
are elected by you and we maintain these web pages, which will
hopefully be a useful source of information for you when it comes
to issues that affect your training.
The last few years have been a period
of great change and uncertainty within postgraduate medical
education, and further developments continue to be made. We are
fortunate in that trainees are represented at all levels within the
College and as such we can ensure our views are heard when it comes
to these changes.
Please do communicate with your local
PTC representatives about any training issues, and please also feel
free to contact the PTC officers.
Recruitment
Over the last three years the PTC has
focused on efforts to improve recruitment to psychiatry, being
instrumental in setting up medical school psychiatry societies and
the student associate grade. The PTC’s aims for the coming year
are:
- To review what is available on
training schemes across the UK to support for trainees in
difficulty in terms of communication and exam revision skills
training, counselling services, psychotherapy and mentoring with
the aim that every trainee has access to what they need, if they
need it.
- To work with the College on
improvements in the quality of MRCPsych courses during core
training and on the development of a higher training course in
skills needed for consultancy.
- To improve communication between the
PTC and trainees with outreach to training rotations are not
covered by a PTC representative, ongoing development of our
newsletter, and an improvement of the trainee web pages.
- To continue to support the College
with the recruitment campaign by maintaining close links with
student societies, continuing to promote psychiatry amongst
foundation doctors and developing strategies to highlight careers
in psychiatry in secondary schools.
In addition we will continue with the
core work of the PTC, namely to continue to actively participate in
the further development of the e-portfolio, the curriculum, exams
and workplace based assessments, as well as ensuring that standards
of postgraduate training are maintained and continue to
improve.
I look forward to the year ahead and
again, please feel free to contact us regarding any training
issues.
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