News and opportunities

Training

• The next NET Training days are 21st September at Homerton, and 12th November at Basildon. We also expect an ILD day at UCLH in late November/early December and a date in January at the Royal London. Ideas for themes we should cover? Let us know.
• Upcoming Teach-Ins at the Royal College of Physicians include: Stroke: modern management on 6th Oct, and Neurology for the general physician on 3rd November. These are free, and usually include high quality up-to-date speakers and presentations.  A good source of GIM CPD points and a bonus of living in London.
• Don’t forget courses on occupational lung disease at the National Heart and Lung Institute including: Practical Statistics for Clinical Researchers 30th October; Occupational Lung Disease Keeping up to date on 22nd September, and Introductory Medical Statistics – Thursday 1st to Friday 2nd October 2015
• Upcoming BTS short courses include: Pulmonary Vascular Disease on 8th September
• If you are returning to practice after research, OOPE, or parental leave we highly recommend attending Medical Registrar: Take 2 on Thursday 27th August. It includes: bulletin updates in clinical medicine – what’s new on the acute take?; practical advice on running the take, supporting juniors, clinical leadership, the e-portfolio, and GIM training; workshops on ECGs, Radiology, ALS and emergency scenarios; and a coaching and mentoring taster from the professional development unit. This course was pioneered by our own trainee Sophie Vergnaud-Wiseman and got fantastic feedback last year. Sign up now.
• The Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management has courses in August  that are pretty reasonably priced and are CPD accredited. If you are in the later years of training you may wish to go to one of these courses. The curriculum stipulates you must be competent in areas such as  self-development, self-awareness, identifying the contexts for change and evaluating impact. How can you demonstrate your knowledge and skills?
• We have had it confirmed by the Regional Speciality advisor for GIM Dr John Firth, that a logbook of patients seen on take is NOT required. Angshu has confirmed that ARCP panels will accept the Firth Calculator, in line with other GIM dual accrediting specialities. The rest of the RespNet website has been edited in line with this (if you spot any mistakes please let us know).  This is great news, in the ongoing battle to minimise the burden of paperwork for accreditation of our training! Thanks to Abi Moore for highlighting this and prompting this change.

Jobs/Research opportunities

• No new opportunities this month. However, the rules around OOP were discussed at out last Training Programme meeting. National guidance is due out imminently and is expected to be much more prescriptive than in days gone by. It should be a step forward towards fairness for all specialities and training programmes to follow the same rules, but this is likely to be at the cost of flexibility and consideration of personal circumstances. If you are planning for OOP time, please plan ahead and remember to factor in the rules around OOPRs and the necessary permissions and notice to the TPD and LETB.

Committees

• At the last Respiratory Training Programme Management Committee on Mon 13th July we discussed a number of issues. Of particular relevance to trainees:
  • Training Days and curriculum coverage: we have just mapped all the recent training days (2013-2015) to the curriculum to help highlight gaps. We are moving to planning dates and locations a year in advance (the Whittington has already confirmed a date for June 2016) which should make planning easier for trainees and Trusts alike.
  • ICU placements duration and location: a review is being undertaken of ICU posts and duration. Shortening the duration to less than the current 6 month post is being considered, but this requires careful thought in order to fit shorter posts into rotations.
  • ARCP process: this seems to have gone much more smoothly this year. Trainees seemed to have clearer expectations and we’re not aware of any unexpected outcome 5s. If you are unhappy with your outcome please get in touch and we will try to help.
  • The TPMC confirmed that the minimum number of Bronchoscopy’s required to CCT is 100, but more is preferable. In addition to the numbers logged, as assessment of competence by a Consultant is required (yearly DOPS).
  • The TPMC also provided guidance on what can be expected from Educational Supervisors in terms of signing off the curriculum. The expectation is that 25% of the curriculum (Resp and GIM) is signed off each year by the ES. As the trainee progresses through training the whole curriculum will then be signed off. It was acknowledged that signing off every individual item was not the best use of ES or trainee time. It was advised that trainees and ESs have more regular meetings and review the ePortfolio on each occasion. Some trainees are still not accruing enough evidence and may need prompting by ESs.
  • To welcome our newly recruited ST3s to the programme there will be a social event after the first training day in October. More details nearer the time but keep your evening free.
  • Relocation/travel costs – inconsistencies in guidance: unfortunately we did not discuss this but we are trying to engage trainee reps from South and NorthEast London to share information.
  • Decommissioned posts: we have lost numbers in North East Thames as a result of central government/HEE policy. This is problematic and will lead to gaps on rotas as service demands have not changed. Trusts who will be affected are looking into ways of mitigating these potential problems.
• The BTS STAG SpR Rep, Dr. Faiza Chowdhury is still gathering views from trainees across the country, in preparation for the annual meeting at the Winter BTS. Please contact us, or Angshu, with things you want to feedback to the BTS STAG. The STAG is the Specialist Training Advisory Group, whose aim is to represent your views on your training and education during your NTN. They have close links with SAC (curriculum), RCP and JRCPTB so can represent your views and effect change. Some of the STAG priorities include:
  • Regional respiratory training days guidelines
  • A speciality reading list (for SCE and general interest)
  • Standardisation of recording of USS, procedures & clinics, possibly through an app
• We should make better use of the STAG so please get in touch with:
  • Any issues or concerns that trainees are struggling with in your region (we will be highlighting patchy USS training/signoff, frequent curriculum changes, and inconsistencies in ARCP/PYA requirements)
  • Examples of good practice in your region that you would like to share (we will be highlighting EBUS training at Homerton and Basildon, this website, and the integrated care job at Whittington)
• Other
  • The Royal College of Physicians are looking for 2 speakers for their Careers Conference on Saturday 27th February 2016. The areas they are looking to cover are: “Taking time out to study” (PhD or Masters) and “Working abroad”. This is a great way to get involved with the RCP and usually leads to invitations to speak at other events and contribute in other ways. If anyone is interested in running a session on their experiences let Abi Moore know and she will put you in touch with the RCP conferences team.
  • A message from SpR James Murray:
    • “For those of you who don’t know me, I have been a registrar on the rotation for 4 years. As my mid-thirties approach I have decided to have a midlife crisis. Given that I live in Central London in a flat without a parking space, London weighting not being what it used to and not having the buying power of a tube driver, a sports car was out of the question so I decided to buy a bike instead. Rather than getting into cycling just for the lycra outfits, I have decided to enter a race for charity. I am competing in Ride London-Surrey in August and cycling 100 miles. I decided to raise money for Marie Curie as they provided palliative care nurses for my girlfriend’s granddad on discharge from hospital after a cancer diagnosis. If you feel like this is something you would like to support, or even if you just want to see a picture of my girlfriend getting me in a headlock, please log onto https://www.justgiving.com/James-Murray24/ and donate. Thank you.”
  • And it seems the cycling bug is catching, as Prof Jerry Brown is also getting on his bike on 2nd August, to raise money for Breathing Matters. Even in these times of austerity and pay freezes I’m sure you can spare a few quid for both these great causes.