The Trainee Advisory Committee (TAC) and Bi-national Committee for Trainees (BCT) have been providing feedback, and actively consulting and engaging with the College in the last 12 months on how to develop and rollout the new orientation processes for Stage 1 trainee across Australia and New Zealand. The first part of this project has had excellent results with orientation webinars, new letters of welcome to the College and useful gifts (shout out to the College branded KeepCups!). We hope to continue to improve the orientation process for trainees as we welcome new future psychiatrists to the College in the coming year. Our hope and vision is that all trainees, regardless of stage or if you’re on a break in training, feel they can be part of the College. We are slowly making those inroads in the right direction. 

At the meeting on 31 October, the TAC gave feedback on the Australian Medical Council’s consultation on new draft model accreditation standards and procedures for accreditation. The feedback was detailed and informative, both from a trainee and College perspective, on how the College can engage with the AMC to help inform and support supervisors. I’m proud of TAC members for providing such nuanced views on how the AMC structure may be utilized, and simultaneously accounting for the broader perspective of the College’s submission as a medical training company. The consultation paper is available online for those who would like to read further. 

The TAC and BCT have also been actively giving feedback on the development of an over-arching Fellowship Training Program Monitoring and Evaluation Framework by the Committee for Educational Evaluation, Monitoring and Reporting. The framework is being developed to fulfil Standard Six of the Standards for Assessment and Accreditation of Specialist Medical Programs, to systematically assess the progress, effectiveness, and impact of the Fellowship training program.

The TAC has been closely involved in the development of a survey to assist with understanding the Psychotherapy Written Case in more depth at both local and bi-national levels. Alongside the Faculty of Psychotherapy, the TAC has advocated for the development of two surveys by the College: one for trainees, and one for supervisors and Directors of Training. We look forward to keeping you up to date on this complex but extremely important issue, as psychotherapy is an incredibly rich skill for trainee psychiatrists to learn and grow. 

The TAC also received a verbal update on advocacy relating to changes to entry requirements for the Certificate of Advanced Training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry which occurred earlier this year. If there are any queries from trainees around this, please do not hesitate to contact your local BCT representative, or the College training team at training@ranzcp.org. 

With the BCT transforming to a committee that directly reports to the Board, it has become even more imperative that trainees in each jurisdiction know who to contact in their state. The TAC and BCT admin teams and executives have worked hard alongside our digital team to create new webpages for BCT and TAC. We encourage you all to have a look, and don’t hesitate to provide feedback. 

Another important issue raised by TAC members was safety of trainees while on after-hours/on-call shifts. We would like to acknowledge the changing situation in Aotearoa New Zealand as the police withdraw (to an extent) from mental health callouts. Safety after hours will be discussed at the upcoming BCT meeting so that we can understand the situation binationally and across all jurisdictions.

The BCT will next meet on 27 November 2024 to monitor and discuss implementation of these concerns and actions and Dr Ramsden, Chair of the BCT, and myself will keep you informed of the progress. 

Ava and Georgia