PTC blog - June 2020

A very warm welcome to the June edition of the blog from the PTC.  Given all that’s going on we really appreciate you taking the time to read this.  We are only able to do our job of representing trainees throughout the College by trying to speak to, and hear from, as many of you as possible.  As always we would love you to get in touch if there’s something you want us to know about or you have any questions.

Life has been very strange over the last few months or so and we hope that you are keeping well.  It is so important to take time for yourself, to rest, reflect, seek support if it’s needed, and where possible remember that this challenging situation won’t last forever.  Although things have been hard, there have also been opportunities, and we know of some great work being done by trainees all across the four nations.  Keep it up!

Since our last blog we have become even more au fait with the wonders of modern technology.  To say that we are masters of Microsoft Teams would be a bit of an overstatement, but we did hold our first Teams PTC meeting the other day which worked remarkably well given there are quite a few of us! We were grateful that the current President of the College, Prof. Wendy Burn was able to join us for that meeting and update us on all that has been going on in the College.  Engagement is so important at all levels and we are in the fortunate position where our College genuinely does care about its trainees.  We hope that you managed to join us for the ‘Training matters’ webinar on the 30th April (over 970 of you did, making it a huge success), where our Chair, Ross Runciman introduced some informative speakers, updating trainees on topics of interest and importance. This included talks from Dr Ian Hall who spoke about the plans for the MRCPsych examinations, and Dr John Russell who addressed how best to prepare for the ARCP.  With the rate at which things are changing at the moment it can be hard to keep up to date, but all the very latest information can be found here.

At this time of the year we would usually be gearing up for the International Congress and planning on how to make “The Mess”, our student and trainee lounge, a hub of excitement and interest.  Although Congress for this year has been cancelled, we are already starting to think about how we can make 2021 the best yet for you!

As we mentioned in our last blog, some of our projects have had to take a back seat out of necessity but rest assured we continue to work on them as we are only too aware of how pivotal they are.  We will of course update you about these as soon as we are able, including the plans for our next, and much anticipated trainees conference.  The COVID-19 pandemic has however propelled some of our work to the fore, including our project to further improve engagement with you via a social media platform, a national CT1 welcome event and the ‘cost of training’ document being driven by our Vice Chair, Luke Baker. This is leading the way in transparency for others to follow and highlighting to trainees how their fees are spent.

There’s far too much going on within the PTC to cover in this blog so this is just a snapshot.  If you want to know more you’ll find it in our newsletter and as always you can contact us, your local PTC reps or keep up to date through Facebook,  Twitter or by emailing us at ptcsupport@rcpsych.ac.uk.

Dr Laura Stevenson
@LauraSt40837429
Co-Secretary

Dr Rosemary Gordon
@Rosie_j_g
Co-Secretary

Dr Luke Baker
@drlukebakerUK
Vice Chair

Dr Ross Runciman
@RuncimanRoss
Chair