Key priorities for medical education
- Create an excellent learning environment for safe and integrated patient care.
- Support Educators and have measures for continuous improvement.
- Have Medical Education as a core business of our Trust.
- Make Trust mandatory training efficient yet fit for purpose and monitor the plan.
- Set guidance to Medical and Service Line management for Job Planning of educational responsibilities.
- Train so to create and retain a compassionate workforce.
- Include educational responsibilities in annual appraisals.
- Develop innovative training and multi professional education in line with patient pathways and clusters.
- Develop an inter-professional simulation training programme for raising standards of physical health care
- Develop robust systems of patient and carer participation in educational delivery, monitoring and annual quality reviews.
Continuing Professional Development
The Trust seeks to provide opportunities for the personal development of all consultant medical staff and requires consultants to undertake Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
The standard job plan sets aside a full PA for CPD allowing for attendance at the active in-house teaching programme which consists of external speakers alternating with internal events, and 2 hours private study per week.
Each consultant has a study leave budget of £1000 per year and 10 days study leave. The personal study leave budget is effectively augmented by high quality in-house CPD. This consists of a quarterly consultant CPD half day with external or internal specialist speakers, with a focus on the topics consultants raise as their current educational needs. Examples of recent events are diagnosis and management of adult ADHD, Asperger’s syndrome and the use of HCR20 in clinical practice.
In addition to the study leave budget and in-house CPD, the local weekly education programme regularly invites external speakers, around 10 times per year, often focussing on physical health issues and local consultant presentations.
We feel that this combination of locally facilitated high quality educational provision with a modest individual budget gives the best value in terms of ensuring all consultants can access adequate CPD.
From grand rural vistas to inner-city challenges, the world is here and yet we work in a close-knit and supportive organisation. Give us a try and you are likely to get hooked.
Dr Simon Thacker, consultant psychiatrist Shortlisted for RCPsych Awards Psychiatrist Of The Year
Leadership
The Trust provide a leadership programme for all staff involved in management and new consultants are encouraged to take advantage of this. We also hold monthly, Trust-wide leadership sessions, which consultants are involved in planning, and all consultants are invited to attend.
Medical Education facilities
Our on-site facilities aid medical education though a purpose-built Psychiatric Education Centre and a staffed Psychiatric Library. We also provide online access to the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub. It is a one stop search for high quality knowledge and evidence resources all in one place and includes:
- Over 7,000 journals
- Books and e-publications, including OUP handbooks
- One click to full text, request a copy or contact your NHS Library
- Clinical decision support tools such as BMJ Best Practice
- NICE pathways and guidelines
- Databases like Medline, EMBASE and CINAHL
Medical students and trainees
Consultants are very much encouraged to get involved with the training of both undergraduates (medical students) and psychiatric trainees. This can be either by providing teaching sessions or by taking on specific roles such as medical student tutors, clinical supervisors, educational supervisors, or more formal education management roles such as Associate Director of Medical Education and DME.