Judis Tips

Judi's tips for first year trainees

Sunday, 26 June 2005

Orientation to the Task

Get yourself a whiteboard or similar, suitable for mapping out all the various hurdles and deadlines, as well as dates for change of rotation, submissions of forms, application dates etc., and spend time filling it all in – the whole training program, even if you use ink, rather than pencil, only for Basic Training.

This will give you a sense of orientation to the task. Mark items off as you pass them, to give yourself a sense of movement through the process.

Orientation to the System

Get a current copy of the MO award, know what you are entitled to, and get a grip on Salary Packaging if you haven’t already, because there are spots in the training where you may be able to package more than once a year, and you have to be quick off the mark.

Know the system you work for – know about the components of the service you work in, and be familiar with the wider mental health structure. Also helps to have some historical knowledge of mental health provision and changes in Australia – all this will help you comprehend the situations you will find yourself in more quickly, and sometimes expedite your work. (Ref: Management of Mental Disorders, WHO – is Australian content, describes core management skills, service structure, etc)

Carry a book like Bernstein's ˜On Call Psychiatry" around with you initially, provides quickguidelines for management of most situations.

Supports

Find yourself a study group (for MPM). This will be very helpful for managing exam preparation, and helping you identify the best study processes for you as an individual when it’s time to sit the College exams. Pace yourself – the MPM is very demanding, especially when there are so many hurdles in Basic Training as it is. Start any assignments ASAP and complete them gradually. You’ll be burning the midnight oil enough doing on call. Use the college and MPM curriculum and notes as skeleton notes for the College exams. Another good source of a complete academic psychiatric curriculum is the RCPsych website.

Participate in your regional branch of ANZAPT. Apart from being able to advocate for you when you have problems, the contacts keep you in touch with what is going on in other services – teaching resources, jobs you may be interested in, good seminars (interstate!), etc. Being in touch with colleagues generally helps control the anxiety and paranoia, helps you feel you aren’t missing out on anything important.

Find yourself a mentoring buddy. Someone near the end of training that you, or your group of first years at your service perhaps, can meet with informally and chat about the process, problems, etc. A friendly senior registrar, perhaps Principal Registrar, might be appropriate. If you can, find yourself a long term mentor. It is very easy to lose your grounding in this process, and a mentor can help enormously with helping you keep a rational perspective.

If you are able, I recommend personal therapy. An old fashioned notion I know, but will help you with:

Supervision

Suggestion for what to do/discuss in supervision for first years :log in to ranzcp.org, and go to link 32 - Regulation 8.5 "By the end of your first year you shall be able to:..." these objectives are also the basis for the 6 monthly assessment.For further information of supervision go to: Link 38.

Interviewing

After learning how to manage the work load in first year, the next most important thing is to learnhow to interview.

There is ABSOLUTELY NO SUBSTITUTE FOR DOING IT OVER & OVER!

There is a big difference between the routine reviews your consultant conducts on a daily basis, the interview you would use as a private clinician taking on a new patient, and the interview you are expected to master for the exams. The latter must be your model for everyday work, but you need to know it’s not the only kind, and where to use various approaches.

Make your consultant model the OCI. (They don’t like doing this, but really they should be able to show you how it’s done.) And if you can, sit in on people practising for their OCI’s – they should want you because they have to get used to being observed - and their feedback as well, so you get an experiential perspective of the requirements.

Ensure your 10 observed interviews are the full 50 min thing, because you will find it hard to get consultants to spend other time watching you interview. Observe as many different consultants interviewing as possible – you learn something about style and process from everyone. Remember you are an apprentice – the more time you put in being one, the quicker you will pass.

Useful references :

Keep physically fit: your cognitive aptitudes will be enhanced! And you'll ward off depression.

Useful Websites

American Psychiatric Association clinical guidelines: useful alternative source of practice guidelines.

Guide to the Internet for Psychiatrists

An Australian site, authored by a frequent poster on Auspsyc, useful instructions for searching the net for psychiatry related topics.

An Introductory Course in Psychotherapy, a great collation of summaries of theory and practice for trainees. (sponsored byThe Northwest Institute of Dynamic Psychotherapy (NWIDP) was established to provide advanced training and further education in psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy in the North West of England. The NWIDP is the main training and accrediting body in the North West, and has links to the University of Manchester, the NHS and other psychotherapy training organisations in the North of England.)

The ANZAPT website has a collection of sites that are useful to psychiatry trainees specifically.

Second Hand Books

My favourite site is:http://www.abebooks.com/

A site useful for psychotherapy oriented texts is:http://www.karnacbooks.com/

Judi Bernshaw