The Binational Committee for Trainees (BCT) met online on 10 July and the Trainee Advisory Council (TAC) met in Brisbane on 19 July.

There have been a number of topics discussed across both committees including the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) Mandatory Rotation proposal for the rural pathway, the Consultation Liaison Psychiatry Mandatory Rotation proposal, the Formal Education course (FEC) and the Entrustable Professional Activity (EPA) working groups. Dr Georgia Ramsden sits on the EPA working group and continues to advocate strongly for a streamlined and efficacious model for all trainees in the development of the new curriculum.

Both committees also discussed the change to requirements about CAP Advanced Certificate Training, and there was a decision to request further clarification given the concerns raised by trainees across all jurisdictions.

The TAC also provided feedback on the recent Trainee Survey and provided a variety of ideas to broaden engagement, including to: 

• Provide trainees with a summary of the outcome of meetings, keeping in mind that there are a lot of emails coming from the College every day.  
• Consider local events for trainees to put a face to a name.
• Include information regarding the trainee surveys in supervisor inductions so that the supervisors are aware and can help inform their trainees.

Additionally, the Education Committee met recently to discuss ongoing developments and importantly the Independent Observed Clinical Activity (I-OCA) and Clinical Competency Portfolio Review. The BCT and TAC have been strongly involved in advocating for increased space and time to think about implementation and how the process will work across different hospital service providers and sites, as well as the differences in Australia versus New Zealand regarding number of examiners. 

In addition, trainees binationally have raised concerns about the independence of examiners, which is important to ensure fair and equitable processes are achieved for both examiners and trainees. We recommend regularly reviewing the FAQ page on the website for any updates, and the College will be sure to communicate should things change.

With workforce shortages becoming more acute, the TAC also discussed the RANZCP Section of Private Practice Psychiatry’s proposed model of training and supervision, and provided feedback on ways to improve trainee engagement and enjoyment of these types of rotations.

With our governance hat on, it was a pivotal moment in July when the TAC was presented with a draft of the updated governance induction material. This will come back to the November TAC meeting after implementation of feedback. 

Some really positive work is ongoing in the digital education platform space and Dr Ava Carter continues to work closely with the team to help guide what would be a useful learning platform for new trainees beginning their journey with the College. 

The BCT will meet next in Wellington on 20 September along with a Board meeting. The TAC will next meet online on 25 October.  

Please remember that you are more than welcome to contact Ava board_ava_carter@ranzcp.org or Georgia bct@ranzcp.org, or your BCT Jurisdictional representative if you think that there are important issues affecting trainees that need to be discussed.