Dear Trainer, welcome to our second Trainers eZine
 
 
Ronan O'Connell, President RCSI
Ronan O'Connell, President RCSI

It is my pleasure as RCSI President to welcome you to the latest edition of the RCSI Trainer eZine. COVID-19 continues to dominate all aspects of our professional and personal lives. Fortunately, so far our hospital system has continued to cope with the upsurge in COVID-19 cases and most scheduled care has returned to near normal levels.

 


It is my pleasure as RCSI President to welcome you to the latest edition of the RCSI Trainer eZine. COVID-19 continues to dominate all aspects of our professional and personal lives. Fortunately, so far our hospital system has continued to cope with the upsurge in COVID-19 cases and most scheduled care has returned to near normal levels.

 

Data presented by Orla Hennessy and Doireann Joyce during the recent webinar hosted by the Irish Surgical Training Group showed that in most disciplines working hours and numbers of cases are close to pre-COVID-19 levels, albeit with an overall year on year decrease in operative experience to July 2020 of approximately 20%. RCSI is acutely aware of the current issues in the delivery of surgical training continues to work with the HSE to try to ensure on-going access to training cases for trainees.

 

The successful holding of MRCSI part A in September and part B in October was a major achievement for which we all are indebted to the staff in Surgical Affairs, SARA and the examinations office in RCSI. The final Intercollegiate FRCS examinations were held with remote access through RCSI. At the time of writing, 17 candidates have taken the FRCS in trauma and orthopaedics and further examinations in General Surgery to follow this week. The remaining specialty FRCS examinations will take place over the rest of the month. The change in format is challenging for all concerned, however initial feedback is very positive and all are grateful that the exams will facilitate CCST certification for those in ST 7 and ST8.

 

Plans are well advanced to deliver a stimulating programme for the combined Millin and Charter meetings 2nd - 6th February next in what will effectively become a Charter Week programme. It may well be that this format will be adopted in future years avoiding an isolated Millin meeting in November. We will be looking for your feedback following the event.

 

I hope that by the time of the next eZine, we will have emerged from level 5 and that circumstances will have allowed family celebrations over the Christmas and New Year. I hope you all will have the opportunity to rest and to reflect with pride what you have achieved over the past most difficult of years.

 

Keep safe.

 
 
 
Annual Trainer Survey
 

This year the training environment has been altered in a way no one ever imagined. The Annual Surgical Trainer survey is now open.

 

This year the 2020 survey is intended to give participants the opportunity to provide feedback to the College on the supports that have been put in place and how the College can continue to provide meaningful support to those delivering surgical training in a challenging situation.


This year the training environment has been altered in a way no one ever imagined. The Annual Surgical Trainer survey is now open.


This year the 2020 survey is intended to give participants the opportunity to provide feedback to the College on the supports that have been put in place and how the College can continue to provide meaningful support to those delivering surgical training in a challenging situation.

Early on in the pandemic the RCSI established a Covid support hub that has continued to evolve and adapt during 2020.

 

The hub contains a large amount of information relating to Covid, this is just one of the initiatives that College has put in place.

The annual survey is an opportunity for trainers to provide feedback directly on what has been useful and what other information would be beneficial.

 

Annual Surgical Trainer Survey 2020

 
 
New Fully funded COVID Era POST – CSCST Fellowships July 2021
 

The challenges faced by the Irish health service in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID are unprecedented. 

 

The HSE Chief Clinical Officer has agreed, as a once off in this COVID era, to provide a number of fully funded post CSCST fellowships for the July 2021 – July 2022 training year.  The HSE has committed to supporting 8 Post CSCST Fellowships aligned to the RCSI for Surgery and Emergency Medicine.

 


The challenges faced by the Irish health service in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID are unprecedented. 

 

The HSE Chief Clinical Officer has agreed, as a once off in this COVID era, to provide a number of fully funded post CSCST fellowships for the July 2021 – July 2022 training year.  The HSE has committed to supporting 8 Post CSCST Fellowships aligned to the RCSI for Surgery and Emergency Medicine.

 

To progress this initiative the HSE have partnered with the Postgraduate Training Bodies to identify, develop, recruit and oversee these once-off 12 month Post CSCST Fellowships. These opportunities will provide formal recognition of the Fellowships by RCSI.

 

The process of identification of the Fellowships and subsequent recruitment will be managed through Surgical Affairs with input from the HSE.

 

The relevant information and application are available here: Fully funded post CSCST Fellowships and for further information please email fellowships@rcsi.ie

 

This will provide perspective applicants with all the information and guidance required to submit an application. We would recommend that you consult with your hospital, Training programme director and specialty colleagues prior to submission of an application. Deadline for submissions is the 14th December 2020.

 

This is a very welcome step and initiative to ensure the continued growth of formal Post CSCST Fellowships within the healthcare system and offers us a unique opportunity to provide doctors who have completed specialist training in Ireland to access high quality training in a specialised areas of clinical care in Ireland.

 

With a view to ensuring these Fellowships are accredited and approved in line with internationally recognised fellowships ISPTC and Surgical Affairs will work with the successful applicants to ensure each COVID Era fellowship meets the required accreditation standards for our Post CCST trainees who choose to remain at home to pursue fellowship opportunities.

 

We look forward to working with you on the establishment of these fellowships over the course of the next few months. 

 
 
CPD update
 

Maintenance of Professional Competence

 

The Professional Competence Schemes are operated by the Training Bodies under an agreement with the Medical Council.  As trainers, we encourage you to advise NCHDs working with you to make sure they enrol in a Professional Competence Scheme and are recording their credits in their portfolio.  


Maintenance of Professional Competence

 

The Professional Competence Schemes are operated by the Training Bodies under an agreement with the Medical Council.  As trainers, we encourage you to advise NCHDs working with you to make sure they enrol in a Professional Competence Scheme and are recording their credits in their portfolio.  

 

Annually doctors are required to record one clinical/practice audit and a total of 50 CPD credits that comprise of a minimum of 20 external CPD credits; 20 internal CPD credits; 5 personal CPD credits; and 2 research/teaching CPD credits (desirable).

 

As you will be aware, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Medical Council have modified the Framework for Maintenance of Professional Competence requirements for 2020/2021 and relaxed a number of the requirements. 

  • Doctors will not be required to record a clinical/practice audit with their Scheme during this year.
  • Doctors will not be required to record 25 CPD credits of the 50 CPD credit total with their Scheme.  These credits will be considered as met arising from increased learnings by doctors during COVID-19.
  • Of the 25 CPD credits remaining, doctors will be permitted to record these credits in any CPD category (external, internal, personal, research/teaching). CPD targets for each individual category will not apply for 2020/21.

 

We would ask you to encourage your NCHDs to take a broader approach, where it is possible to do so, to ensure they participate in at least 20 hours of external activities (these can be online courses / seminars / conferences / webinars etc.), participate and record their attendance at 20 hours of hospital based events like Grand Rounds, MDTs and quality improvement activities (even if these are by web conference).  Doctors should continue to read, particularly the key journals for your specialty, and record your reading under the personal learning category. COVID-19 in surgery / emergency medicine presents an opportunity to do interesting, if not unique, audits, and we recommend that every surgeon / Emergency Medicine specialist / NCHD (and consultant) should continue to conduct and record an audit and share them with colleagues.

 

RCSI provides a Continuous Professional Development & Support Scheme (CPDSS), which is an educational programme, commissioned and funded by the HSE to facilitate NCHDs within the public health service who are not on training schemes to maintain the professional competence in line with Medical Council requirements.  This Scheme is free of charge to NCHDs who hold a contract with the HSE.  NCHDs who are not employed by the HSE and wish to attend classes can do so as well but must prepay in full to secure a place.

 

Many of the NCHDs working with you will have registered for the Scheme.  The Programme provides an offering of 95 courses, Scientific Meetings and Academic Programmes.  The COVID 19 pandemic has required all in surgery and emergency medicine to adapt and rethink how they must approach their own safety and the care of their patients. This extensive programme provides 48 face to face courses and 47 blended courses; 3 Certificate Programmes in Quality Improvement in Leadership, Medical Leadership in Practice, Lean Healthcare White, Yellow and Green Belt.  4 fully online programmes; Medical Emergencies, Surgical Emergencies, Communication modules of video and telephone consultations and Professionalism in 21st Century; 12 online modules.  Full details of the programme are available here.

 

In terms of assisting you, as a trainer, to meet the annual PCS requirements, we will automatically add credits directly to your online portfolio if you participate in interviews for CST or HST, in a training committee or if you teach in RCSI on courses organized for your trainees or as part of the CPDSS programme.

In addition, beginning in 2020, we will automatically add credits to your portfolio for operations where you directly supervise a trainee. This only applies to operations logged in the RCSI elogbook, which is currently used by trainees in core training and ST3. However, the use of this logbook will be rolled out to all trainees in due course. These credits are added once yearly. We are exploring the possibility of providing credits for other training based activities recorded by trainees in their portfolio.

 

Finally, we recommend that each trainer should examine their own development needs at the beginning of each PCS year (May). You might find it useful to complete a Personal Development Plan and upload this to your PCS portfolio. You may claim up to 3 credits for preparing and uploading your portfolio and an additional credit if you review the portfolio with a peer. A peer reviewer may also claim 1 CPD credit for reviewing and advising on a personal development plan at the beginning and end of the PCS year. Have a look at the PDP here.

 

Your training programme administrator or the PCS manager are always happy to advise if there are any issues that require clarification in relation to PCS.

 

 

 
 
Trainers at Charter Day
Core Surgical Training Programme
 

The College annual Charter Day event in February will have a session on the morning of Thursday, 4 February 2021 dedicated to Surgical Trainers.


The College annual Charter Day event in February will have a session on the morning of Thursday, 4 February 2021 dedicated to Surgical Trainers.

 

The session will focus on the challenges that trainers are currently experiencing, we have planned a packed programme delivered by excellent international speakers who will address key issues including

 

• How to do you assess competence during Covid

• Preparing Trainees of Fellowships

• Regionalisation of Training

 

A panel discussion will follow, we hope you can join us on the day.

 
 
Update on recruitment plans for 2021
 

As the Covid 19 restrictions are expected to continue into the new year, the ISPTC /RCSI has been working on strategies to ensure there will be no diminution of the high standards that the RCSI Surgical Training Programme recruitment and selection processes has developed.

 


As the Covid 19 restrictions are expected to continue into the new year, the ISPTC /RCSI has been working on strategies to ensure there will be no diminution of the high standards that the RCSI Surgical Training Programme recruitment and selection processes has developed.

 

This year the selection process for both Core and Specialist Training will move online, and is in line with what is happening nationally across all Postgraduate Training Bodies. This is a stressful time for all those applying to a Surgical training programme and the team in Surgical Training are particularly cognisant of this. As we move from the application to interview stages of the process the team will be continually communicating with all those involved to reduce stress levels and make the entire process as smooth as possible.

Further updates on how the selection process will work across both Core and Specialty Training will be made available to all shortlisted candidates in Core and Specialty Training in early 2021, however, the planning is well underway at this time.

 
 
Update on exam process - MRCS
 

The exams department have worked strenuously over the past number of months to ensure that candidates would not be negatively affected by Covid 19 and have modified the exam process to ensure that those wishing to sit either part A or B of the MRCS would be facilitated.


The exams department have worked strenuously over the past number of months to ensure that candidates would not be negatively affected by Covid 19 and have modified the exam process to ensure that those wishing to sit either part A or B of the MRCS would be facilitated.

 

MRCS Part A was held on 15th September as an online examination. Results were published on 28th October.

 

A socially distanced  MRCS Part B 13 station OSCE was held on 6/7 October for 54 candidates which all ran successfully.

 
 
Global Surgery & RCSI: Sustainable Collaborations and Partnership!
RCSI COVID-19 Webinars
 

As part of our suite of resources, RCSI now hosting a weekly 1hour webinar series each Wednesday evening at 6pm. Which aims to update surgical teams on the latest developments and what it means for them.


As part of our suite of resources, RCSI now hosting a weekly 1 hour webinar series each Wednesday evening at 6pm which aims to update surgical teams on the latest developments and what it means for them. These webinars are free to attend. You can see details of the upcoming webinar and videos of previous webinars through the following link:


https://www.rcsi.com/surgery/coronavirus/surgical-practice/weekly-webinar-series


This weeks webinar is titled “Global Surgery and RCSI: Sustainable Collaborations and Partnership”

 

This webinar will include contributions from:

  • Professor Camilla Carroll, Chair, RCSI Committee for International Co-operation and Development, National Lead ENT Education in Primary Care and Consultant Otolaryngologist and Head and Neck Surgeon, Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital Dublin
  • Professor Godfrey Muguti, President of COSECA, Professor and Chair of Surgery University of Zimbabwe and Clinical Professor of Surgery Stanford University
  • Dr Gozie Offiah, NDTP National Clinical Lead for Intern Training and Senior Lecturer, RCSI School of Medicine, Department of Surgery
  • Professor Martin Corbally, Chief of Surgery, RCSI Bahrain
  • Professor Mark Shrime, O’Brien Chair of Global Surgery, RCSI Institute of Global Surgery
  • Dr Bharti Kewlani, RCSI Class of 2020

 

You can register for this Webinar through the following link

https://rcsi.eventsair.com/25112020-webinar/global-surgery-rcsi-sustainable-collaborations-partnership/Site/Register

 
 
 
Membership of Faculty of Surgical Trainers
 

The Faculty of Surgical Trainers was established in 2020 with the clear objective of recognising and celebrating the role of surgical trainers.


The Faculty of Surgical Trainers was established in 2020 with the clear objective of recognising and celebrating the role of surgical trainers.

The Faculty has a number of objectives, key among them are developing programmes that will support consultant surgeons in their role as trainers.

The Faculty will shortly begin welcoming members into the Faculty and we expect to be in direct contact and invite you to join the Faculty.

 
 
Webinar schedule for the coming months
 

RCSI are hosting a regular, 40-minute webinar series which aims to update surgical teams on the latest developments and what this means for them. These webinars are free to attend. A list of upcoming events can be found here.


RCSI are hosting a regular, 40-minute webinar series which aims to update surgical teams on the latest developments and what this means for them. These webinars are free to attend. A list of upcoming events can be found here.

 
 
Less Than Full Time Training
July 2021 Proposed Pilot
 

There are many factors that have impacted on the realm of Surgical Training over the past number of years including, the introduction of EWTD, team working, and graduate entry medicine has meant the age profile of those entering training has changed and the gender balance has altered with women accounting for almost 50% of new trainees in 2020.


There are many factors that have impacted on the realm of Surgical Training over the past number of years including, the introduction of EWTD, team working, and graduate entry medicine has meant the age profile of those entering training has changed and the gender balance has altered with women accounting for almost 50% of new trainees in 2020.

Currently the only formalised flexible training pathway for trainees in Ireland is the National Flexible

Training Scheme, which accommodates 16 whole time equivalent (WTEs) supernumerary trainees per

year i.e. up to 32 participants confined to half time posts (.5 WTE) at any one time. This equates to

approximately 0.4% of trainees in Ireland working less than full-time and is insufficient to meet the needs of this highly diverse cohort of doctors working in the Irish health system. 

 

There has been a gradual move to less than full time (LTFT) however, the number of surgical trainees availing of this continues to remain low. 

The HSE National Doctors Training and Planning (NDTP) are committed to expanding flexible training options for trainees, beyond current formalised scheme which has become saturated in recent years.

 

A small scale Pilot for July 2021 training year is now proposed

The NDPT are proposing that the college and Programme Training directors work closely to facilitate and support trainees who may wish to avail of alternative LTFT options of training such as

Job Sharing: 

Where two trainees are interested in sharing the same post, the Specialty Programme /Surgical Affairs will work with them to support the successful functioning of this arrangement from both the training and service provision perspective.

The NDTP will provide extra funding equivalent to 1.6 WTE to allow for the design of a bespoke arrangement.

 3 Day week:

If two trainees wish to work a 3 day week and are occupying the same post (1.2) funding will be made available for the extra .2 to the hospital to facilitate this.

1 Trainee seeking a 3 day week & 1 Trainee seeking a 4 day week.

If both trainees can be matched to the same post additional funding of .4 of a post will be provided to the hospital to facilitate this

2 Trainees seeking a 4 day week

If both trainees can be matched to one full time training post additional funding of .6 post will be provided to the hospital to facilitate this.

3 Trainees seeking a 4 day week

If a specialty has 3 trainees all of whom wish to work a 4 day week and they can be matched to the same location. This translates to 2.4 posts and funding will be provided to the hospital for .4. of a post. funding will be provided (2.4 WTE) (.4 LTFT fund required)

The options that have been outlined here are not prescriptive and requests for similar working arrangements that will support LTFT will be considered. 

If a trainee is interested in applying for less than full time training the advice is to contact their Programme Director as early as possible as once training allocations are agreed it can be challenging to review them.  Following the discussion with the Programme Director a formal expression of interest should then be submitted to the Specialty Administrator.

It is important to note that if a trainee opts for LTFT it will have impact on the duration of training required to CCST

 
 
Accreditation of Fellowships
 

The transition from senior trainee to consultant can be a challenging step. Fellowships help bridge the gap by providing subspecialty training typically at a level higher than normally received under the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme.


The transition from senior trainee to consultant can be a challenging step. Fellowships help bridge the gap by providing subspecialty training typically at a level higher than normally received under the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme.

 

In order to assist its Fellows and Members in identifying high-quality Fellowship posts, RCSI has developed Fellowship accreditation processes. Ongoing monitoring and review of posts will ensure that they remain at the standard expected by the College. Fellowship accreditation is the process by which the RCSI reviews surgical Fellowships to ensure that they meet the RCSI standards for Fellowship design, delivery, and learning outcomes. 

Additional information will be made available on the RCSI website soon.  For further information please contact surgicaltrainers@rcsi.ie

 
 
PGDip/MSc in Human Factors in Patient Safety
Applications Opening Soon
 

Please note online applications for our PG Diploma/MSc in Human Factors in Patient Safety will open soon.


Please note online applications for our PG Diploma/MSc in Human Factors in Patient Safety will open soon.

This inter-professional online part-time programme is suited for all healthcare professionals involved in the care of hospital patients.

Please visit the course webpage for more information: https://bit.ly/2CJniaP

 
 
Court of Examiners - Interested in Becoming an Examiner
 

The remit of the Court of Examiner’s is to increase the profile of postgraduate surgical examining at RCSI and to make such examining activity more relevant and attractive to the College's surgical community in Ireland and overseas.


The remit of the Court of Examiner’s is to increase the profile of postgraduate surgical examining at RCSI and to make such examining activity more relevant and attractive to the College's surgical community in Ireland and overseas.

The Court’s Executive Committee is responsible for examiner recruitment and development and seeks to make examining more relevant to this community, in terms of continuing professional development (CPD).

Members of the RCSI Court of Examiners are kept informed on developments and international best practice in clinical assessment at the Annual Court of Examiners Meeting and are awarded Professional Competence Scheme (PCS) credits for examining and attending the meeting. Members also receive a complimentary member's pack (with RCSI Court of Examiners merchandise).

 

RCSI is currently recruiting surgical examiners for the College's MRCS exam.

Applications from RCSI Fellows who are in active clinical practice and have held a consultant post for two years are welcome.

If you are interested in becoming a Member, please see the Becoming an Examiner page on the RCSI website.