RCPI Trainer Conference hears updates about developing skills and curriculum-changes
RCPI’s Annual Trainer Conference took place at No 6 Kildare Street on 22 November. The conference is held each year as an opportunity for college Trainers to gather and delve into the latest research and best practices in postgraduate medical training.
After an opening address by RCPI President Dr Diarmuid O’Shea, the first session was themed “Supporting Your Trainees.” Mr Tom Pierse, the Medical Workforce Analytics lead with National Doctors Training and Planning (NDTP), gave an overview of several workforce reviews in progress. NDTP anticipates a significant growth in demand for hospital consultants, as much of the Trainee intake decides to qualify in General Practice. Presenting on NDTP recruitment campaigns, he showed that Surgery and Paediatrics were found to have the highest retention rates, while Radiology and Pathology were shown as having the lowest retention rates when it comes to available candidates for posts. “I think we need to do regional strategic workforce planning, to join up the training pipeline with the job-creation pipeline, so we hire the people we train,” he said.
Dr Nuala Kelly (Occupational Medicine, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital) spoke about methods for Trainers to support neurodiverse Trainees. “There’s a low rate of declaration in doctors. Some people might have a diagnosis, and don’t want to be defined by it,” she said. Dr Kelly encouraged Trainers to understand the difference between the employer-employee contract and the Trainer-Trainee relationship – the latter being based on an agreement with a training body. If the extent of the Trainee’s workplace difficulties are health-related, Dr Kelly encouraged Trainers to contact their local occupational medicine service to seek out an appropriate management-referral process.
The session then heard from two RCPI Trainees. Dr Nicholas Power (Higher Specialist Training in Infectious Diseases) spoke about transitions in General Internal Medicine training, and presented a study conducted with junior registrars in University Hospital Galway which found recurring themes of young doctors feeling uncertain in their role, and the stress of increased expectations. Dr Power referenced a research paper that encouraged embedding meaningful learning opportunities into supervision. “A lot of high-level skills we expect people to pick up in training, they are expected to pick them up by osmosis, when they could be teachable skills taught in a supervised environment,” said Dr Power. Trainee wellbeing was the focus of a presentation by Dr Patrick Carr (Higher Specialist Training in Occupational Medicine), who referenced recent research by the Irish Medical Organisation finding three out of five Irish doctors unhappy with work-life balance. Dr Carr spoke of the work of the RCPI Trainee Health & Wellbeing Committee. “Non-consultant Hospital Doctors can often be the canary in the coalmine when it comes to burnout in the workplace. We don’t need to get a more resilient canary. We need to fix the underlying issue,” he said. Session chair Dr Maeve Doyle, RCPI Dean of Education & Academic Programmes, led an audience Q&A afterward.
A second session titled “Developing Your Skills” took the form of three parallel workshops that attendees had the option of choosing from. RCPI Faculty of Paediatrics Director of Training Prof Michael O’Neill led a workshop on dealing with conflict and feedback. With Dr Natasha Lyon (programme director of Mid-west Intern Network), a group focused on navigating negative feedback. A workshop dedicated to mentorship was led by RCPI Dean of Educations and Academic Programmes Dr Maeve Doyle, along with RCPI staff Ms Maria Golden (RCPI Health and Wellbeing Manager) and Mr Maurice Kinsella (RCPI Education Specialist).
A final session titled “The Training Environment” focused on considerations for the workspace, and was chaired by RCPI Registrar Prof Michael Keane. RCPI Education Specialists Mr Stephen Capper and Ms Mariangela Esposito spoke of the “paradigm-shift” of the recently-introduced Outcome-based Education curriculums, and encouraged Trainers to be familiar with them.
Prof Stefan Tcehernodrinski spoke of RCPI’s new Point-of-care Ultrasound (POCUS) pilot programme for RCPI Institute of Medicine trainers. He is associate professor of clinical medicine at University of Illinois College of Medicine, where POCUS training is mandatory for all Emergency Medicine residents.
“We determined the need for such training in Ireland for medicine consultants,” said Prof Tchernodrinski, explaining that such training would allow bedside clinicians to conduct investigations without referring to someone else. So far, simulation workshops have taken place at University Hospital Galway and University Hospital Waterford, and have provided one-on-one scanning for clinicians. “We had two dozen enthusiastic Trainees, some of them, after being intimidated by the ultrasound, are beginning to acquire images on their own,” he said.
A final presentation by Dr John Fitzsimons (consultant paediatrician, Children’s Health Ireland Temple Street) encouraged Trainers to embrace learning through quality improvement, referencing how conscious improvements can lead to change, such as the near-disappearance of haemophilus influenzae (prevalent in patients in the early 1990s). “Quality is so important. It’s like our North Star. It lets us know we’re doing the right things,” he said.
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