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Flexible training

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Anu Ipe
Anu Ipe*
Affiliation:
Wonford House, Exeter EX2 7AF
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Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 30 , Issue 5 , May 2006, pp. 195
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2006

I am a senior house officer who has been training under a flexible training scheme for the past 2 years. Like any other trainee in psychiatry, I have read with great interest the recent publications regarding the imminent changes in training and I have wondered how flexible training will be affected by the introduction of modular and work place-based assessments.

I understand the College is committed to improving and developing flexible training (Reference RamsayRamsay, 2005) and am pleased to report that such has been my experience. During my 2 years as a flexible trainee I have experienced some difficulties in attending all teaching sessions because some in-house sessions fell on days that I did not work. Most flexible trainees work six sessions (equivalent to 3 days) a week.

It would appear that flexible trainees are satisfied with current training schemes. Flexibly trained psychiatrists have been found to outperform their full-time colleagues in terms of how quickly they gain College Membership (assessed by the number of examination attempts) (Reference Mears, Etchegoyen and StormontMears et al, 2004). I am again pleased to report that this has been my experience.

It has been suggested that nationally 14% of all psychiatrists train flexibly (Reference Mears, Etchegoyen and StormontMears et al, 2004). In 2003 over 60% of all applicants to medical schools in the UK were female (British Medical Association, 2004). It seems reasonable to predict an increase in the number of women trainees in psychiatry (Reference RamsayRamsay, 2005). This could mean more trainees wanting to train flexibly.

I think it is very important that the College considers flexible training during the current revision so that the scheme will be compatible with part-time working.

References

British Medical Association (2004) The Demography of Medical Schools: A Discussion Paper. London: BMA. http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/DemographyMedSchls/$file/demography.pdf Google Scholar
Mears, A., Etchegoyen, A., Stormont, F., et al (2004) Female psychiatrists' career development after flexible training. Psychiatric Bulletin, 28, 201–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramsay, R. (2005) Women in Psychiatry: ten years of a special interest group. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 11, 383–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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