News and opportunities

Happy New Year to you all! We hope you all had at least some time off to indulge in christmas carols, fights over which is the best christmas film and mulled everything. We hope 2016 brings you all you wish for and more.

Training

• The next NET Training day is on 29th February at Princess Alexandra, Harlow . Ideas for future themes we should cover? Let us know. The teams organising upcoming days are trying to match up to gaps identified by our ongoing curriculum mapping (which you can download in all it’s glory, complete with traffic light system). Consultants are, however, very open to suggestions for topics.
• Upcoming Teach-Ins at the Royal College of Physicians include: Acute Oncology on 2nd February and Diabetes management on the general ward and during surgery on 1st March. 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.
• Upcoming BTS short courses include: Thoracic Ultrasound in Oxford on 10th March, Interventional Bronchoscopy and Thoracoscopy in Preston 25-26th May, Preparing for the SCE in York 22nd June and Lung Transplantation on 22nd September.
• Don’t forget courses on occupational lung disease at the National Heart and Lung Institute
• Another source of reasonably priced and high quality GIM points are the Cambridge Medical Seminars so look out for the 2016 programme.
• UCLP are running several workshops on “Cultural Health Factors – learning from and communicating with diverse populations”. Remaining dates include:  22nd January, 29th January and 3rd February (although they are likely to be fully booked by now). 1-day workshops will include expertise from an Equality and Human Rights Lawyer, and the use of actors to apply communication skills. A focus on leadership skills is built-in to the programme, and 6 CPD points are on offer.
• The Essex Ultrasound Course is taking place at Basildon Hospital on 3rd March, which includes hands-on experience with patients with pathology, and is a very reasonable price of £75. Contact Christina Rafferty for more details
• Don’t forget to have a look at the ‘clinic aide-memoires’ on the Resources page and ‘favourite papers‘ from Consultants around the region.
• Having just been through the ARCP decision aids for Respiratory Medicine (dual-accrediting) and GIM, I thought it might be worth pointing out the following points, as they are not necessarily obvious requirements pre-CCT. This is of course not a comprehensive list, so please go through the documents yourself, but they stood out to me as areas that need additional planning.
  • You need to be competent in all clinical subject areas, but may not access training is some specialist areas within usual rotations. In particular think about about:
    • Pulmonary disease in the immunocompromised host
    • Pulmonary vascular diseases (need to attend a teaching programme session/course + 2 outpatient clinics in specialist centre/satellite clinic + CbD)
    • Cystic Fibrosis (need to attend teaching programme session/course + 2 outpatient clinics + MDT + CbD)
    • Pulmonary disease in the HIV patient
    • Occupational and environmental lung disease
    • Genetic and developmental lung disease
    • Lung transplantation (need to attend teaching programme/course + 2 outpatient clinics in specialist/satellite clinic + CbD)
    • Managing longterm conditions – on the curriculum it specifies that this should include attendance at a meeting with commissioners in an appropriate area e.g. COPD, asthma, lung cancer, TB
  • Make sure you get formal sign off of safe sedation during Bronchoscopy. You need 2 formal signoffs of safe sedation (in addition to attendance at an appropriate course)
  • Also make sure you audit your positive histology rate for visible tumours at Bronchoscopy
  • Keep your procedure logbook up to date and make sure it includes pleural procedures, bronchoscopies and NIV experience
  • You need to provide evidence that you have engaged with and understood management and NHS structure, and have attended a management and leadership course
  • Make sure you register for the RCP CPD online diary. You need to show engagement with this at your PYA so it might be wise to register in ST6 (the CPD year starts in April)
  • Make sure you have evidence of at least 1 Respiratory audit and at least 2 GIM audits (one of which you must have led)
  • For GIM procedures the current ARCP decision aid specifies you must have summative DOPS sign off for:
    • DC cardioversion
    • Knee aspiration
    • Abdominal paracentesis (2 assessors at 2 time points)
    • Central venous cannulation (femoral as minimum) +/- USS (2 assessors at 2 time points)
    • Intercostal drainage (Seldinger) for pneumothorax and effusion (2 assessors at 2 time points)
  • Since we have done you a favour in gathering and highlighting all this useful information, why don’t you repay the favour and provide some information we can use on the prospectus pages about each hospital on the rotation? You will notice that we still only have 3 up there. We have some information about other places, but need two or three trainees to contribute information on each place to ensure we have a balanced view. All the information you provide is anonymous. Fill in information about a previous job if you do not want to comment on your current job. Only fill in the bits you are happy to. Something is better than nothing. Go on…click here, it looks so inviting…

Jobs/Research opportunities

• UCL has a number of funded PhD fellowships available, in a partnership with Cancer Research UK. One is supervised by Dr Sam Janes, focused on discovering the mechanism of TRAIL sensitivity in mesothelioma.  The start date is September 2016, so you have enough time to provide 6 months notice of leaving the programme. The closing date for applications is 29th January. Get in touch with Sam to discuss the project further.
• Applications for the National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow Scheme 2016/17 close at 5pm on Wednesday 20th January 2016. Fellows are immersed at the centre of organisations such as NHS England, Health Education England, CQC, BUPA and medical royal colleges. Posts are based in London and the North of England. The scheme is sponsored by Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England’s National Medical Director and managed by the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM). Although Sir Bruce may not be very popular at present, the scheme itself has very good feedback.
• We are still waiting for National guidance on OOP which is likely to be 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. Trainees will not normally be allowed to take time OOP in the final year of training other than in exceptional circumstances.
• Remember that even if specific research jobs are not advertised, Consultants with academic positions are always looking for enthusiastic SpRs to join them. They may have pots of money for projects, or may have ideas that could become an MD/PhD. You’ll never know if you don’t ask. Ask around, and get in touch with anyone on the research pages for more info.

Committees

• TPMC
  • Please get in touch to raise issues you want brought up at the next TPMC. Let us know what concerns you so we can be an effective trainee voice on the committee.
• BTS STAG
  • Congratulations to Abi Moore, who has joined the BTS Specialist Trainee Advisory Group committee, focusing on education and training. And also to LJ Smith who is the new ‘Digital Champion’. Both have experience within the Royal College of Physicians too, so hopefully have their fingers on the pulse when it comes to the future of training. Why not ask them about their roles at the next training day, and consider joining a committee yourself? The BTS frequently advertises for trainees to join a range of advisory groups, committees and working parties.

Other

• We hope the strike days go as smoothly as possible and that they have the desired effect and a safe and fair contract can be negotiated very soon. Support each other, and your colleagues in other healthcare professions. And be extra nice to your Consultants on Wednesday as they will really miss you on Tuesday! We are one NHS.