By Dr Elise Witter, Deputy Chair of the Bi-national Committee for Trainees   

As we near the end of 2024, I wanted to share a quick round-up of what’s been happening, and what’s available through our trainee engagement work.   

To recap, the College has a three-year trainee engagement strategy that was designed by trainees to reflect what trainees need to feel valued, seen, and heard by their professional body. You can read more about our six focus areas in my column from earlier this year. 

This year we:

• delivered nearly 400 welcome packs to first year trainees who joined us on the Fellowship pathway.

• undertook a trainee support needs survey, which received over 150 responses, and a trainee member engagement survey, with over 250 trainees sharing their feedback and views. An easy-to-read version of the trainee engagement survey report is now available.

• hosted a bi-national welcome orientation webinar, and for those who missed it, it’s available to watch on demand. 
• launched new content to help new trainees get started. There’s a shortcut link on the MyRANZCP dashboard for all trainees in their first two rotations. 
• refreshed content on the ‘Support for trainees and SIMGs’ webpage. 
• provided feedback and assisted with the development of new information on complaints about discrimination, bullying and harassment and options available. 
• enhanced communications regarding trainee access to the RANZCP Member Support Program (an external EAP service).
• launched a new Facebook page in addition to LinkedIn – please join and follow!

In addition, the Section of Early Career Psychiatrists hosted a webinar on ‘Transition from trainee to consultant psychiatrist: adapting to a new role’ that’s available to view on demand.

During the year, the College promoted several public campaigns centring on diversity and inclusion, including: Women’s History Month, International Women’s Day, Reconciliation Action Week, Crazy Socks 4 Docs, NAIDOC week, and World Mental Health Day. If you have an awareness campaign or want to support trainee groups through the College next year, please get in touch as there’s always more we can do in this space. 

If you’d like to find out who your local representative is and how to contact them, we’ve shared their details on the Bi-national Committee for Trainees webpage. All trainees can also access meeting papers, agenda and minutes through your MyRANZCP dashboard under ‘meeting papers’.

You can get in touch with me anytime via bct@ranzcp.org. Or if you’d like to speak with the College team supporting us with this work, you can contact Sam Dipnall, Senior Manager, Membership Development, at memberhelp@ranzcp.org  

And finally – Merry Christmas from me and Pepper!