The Fruitful and Challenging Recruitment Journey of a Trainee in the
South West
By Dr Miriam Zikry, CT3 Psychiatry in Exeter and Core Trainee Lead for
the Peninsula Network of the PRIP Campaign in the South West
Division
The Promoting Recruitment in Psychiatry (PRIP) campaign has been seen as very active in the
South West Division thanks to support from the RCPsych and Schools of Psychiatry in this
area, and also support from the South West Recruitment Lead, Dr Helen Sharrard, and
Division Manager, Abigail Watts.
I am a CT3 Trainee and I joined the PRIP Peninsula Network two years ago after taking over
the role of Lead Trainee in Peninsula. My journey has been exciting and unpredictable for the
last two years. Initially it felt like mission impossible, but because of the great spirit of the
network and support, I was able to overcome some of the obstacles and I have learnt a great
deal of leadership and management skills. My role in the network didn’t only serve a national
purpose and theme, but also served other professional and personal purposes. I am really
grateful for all the support I got directly from my seniors and leads and colleagues and from
RCPsych and Peninsula School of Psychiatry. This support made the journey much smoother
and also enjoyable in many ways, with countless benefits on many aspects.
Along the journey there have been challenges, but there has also been a lot of enthusiasm
and support for the campaign in the South West. We managed to achieve many of our goals
and outcomes. However, we acknowledge there is still more work needed in this area
particularly in Peninsula. Having said that, I can see that in coming years there are potential
fruits to come from the work done so far. Our small bee cell is encouraged to continue
working with the RCPsych and locally with Schools of Psychiatry and trusts in this area to
achieve a 100% CT1 recruitment filling and also filling of higher training posts. Already the
Severn Deanery area has achieved 100% filling of CT1 posts, but we are hoping the Peninsula
Deanery area will also catch up soon.
A long term goal for us through working on recruitment is that we change the stigma around
mental health in the Peninsula region. Stigma has a clear influence on recruitment which is a
sad reality and not fair to this fascinating specialty. We are also hoping to achieve some
improvement in retention as well as recruitment. In this field, we have already started
liaising with seniors and directors in some trusts who are responsible for training to make
sure trainees’ experiences are positive enough to make them want to settle in this area. Dr
Helen Smith, Medical Director in Devon Partnership Trust, showed great support by giving us
her time to meet and discuss recruitment and retention issues and devise a plan for further
discussion and also to involve more psychiatrists and trainees in our campaign. She also
agreed to changes that made training in that trust more amenable. On top of all that, we
succeeded in securing general and specific improvements in many areas, through the use of
surveys and by feeding back to the quality panel in Peninsula about training and trainees’
areas of concerns. This led to changes in work patterns in some areas and also providing
support where needed.
In addition, we are already in the process of creating a pathway for work experience and
taster experiences in the Peninsula area. Dr Jeremy Sandbrook, a Consultant in Cornwall, is
responsible for setting up these pathways with the involvement of trainees and support from
trusts to facilitate such schemes.
As Core Trainee Lead for the Peninsula Network. my role involves attending regular PRIP
Peninsula Network meetings and also national PRIP Committee meetings in London. I found
that these meetings are mostly goal-focused and helped to inspire and motivate me and
others on finding solutions and doing research on what are the main causes of recruitment
difficulties either nationally or locally.
I have found PRIP work a great opportunity to learn from our leaders and hear their views
about recruitment and how to improve it, including the College President, Sir Simon Wessely,
and outgoing Dean, Dr Wendy Burn, who attended some of these London meetings, and also
Nikki Cochrane, Head of Training and Workforce Operations. I found it a great privilege to
have access to their support.
As part of my role, I have supported and facilitated some events locally, and organised some
with my colleague, Dr Matt Tremaine, an ST5 Trainee who joined PRIP recently and took on
the role of Advanced Trainee Lead for the Peninsula Network. We had great leadership from
Dr Alok Rana, a Consultant who until recently worked for Devon Partnership Trust, who was
Specialty Lead for Psychiatry at the Peninsula Foundation School and was also Locality
Consultant Co-Lead for PRIP in the Peninsula. We ran a number of events in the Peninsula
region, including Autumn and Spring Schools for Foundation Year Doctors, which we are
hoping to run again next year. We have also organised MedFest for the last few years, and
will be hosting it again this coming year.
Our Peninsula School of Psychiatry organised a Development Day in April 2016, led by Dr
Kate Lovett, outgoing Head of School and now Dean of College. Dr Lovett gave us a great
opportunity on that day to present the work done so far and to be able to involve a group of
consultants and trainees in activities to promote recruitment in the Peninsula trusts. I found
the day to be really fruitful and it helped to engage with Dr Helen Smith and other
consultants. We also had great visiting speakers on that day and it was generally a positive
experience.
Through my role I have had the opportunity to work closely with medical student Psychiatry
Society (PsychSoc) Presidents and meet with them at our network meetings or in some
localities. They participated and were included in preparations for MedFest and other events.
Trainees supported some of the student events run locally, for example a talk given by Sir
Simon Wessely at Plymouth University. His speech and the stories he shared were very well
received by students. There are also career fairs and other activities that take place in the
SW region that are led by PsychSoc Presidents. I usually liaise with them at different points
of the year to offer support and they approach me if they have any queries.
What’s Next?
Dr Matt Tremaine and I are in the process of planning with PsychSocs the coming events for
next year as they started a new academic term in September. We are also in process of
organising and inviting speakers for MedFest and also the Spring School of Psychiatry for
Foundation Year Doctors.
Dr Helen Smith is currently organising an Away Day for trainees to meet with them and find
ways of improving training conditions and also to encourage them to get involved with
recruitment-related projects.
The central PRIP Committee has organised a national Strategy Day on 31 October 2016 in
London, to develop a recruitment strategy for coming five years. Dr Sharrard, Dr Sandbrook,
Dr Smith and myself, along with Dr Kate Day, Trainee Lead for the PRIP Severn Network, will
be attending to contribute to these plans.
If you are interested in joining the PRIP campaign in the South West, contact
[email protected]. For more information about SW PRIP activities and your local
Recruitment Leads, take a look at the South West PRIP section of the RCPsych website.