Did you know that there are now more than 2500 psychiatry trainees across Australia and Aotearoa?

As the future psychiatry workforce, early and effective engagement of trainees in the activities and leadership structure of the College is fundamental to ensuring our trainees not only become Fellows but are able to thrive as future psychiatrists and active College members.

My role on the Board, as Appointed Director Trainee, can sometimes be a bit confusing as trainees try to wrap their head around the different positions and committees.

I serve as a Board Director who happens to be a trainee. I bring my experience as a trainee to my work on the Board, but I am not a trainee representative. Board Directors have certain legal obligations which mean all Directors need to work with the whole organisation's best interests in mind (aka fiduciary responsibility) rather than thinking about their specific cohorts or causes.

Of course, part of good governance and good decision making involves thinking about how changes or issues affect all members, including trainees, as a core part of the membership.

During the past three years, there've been structural and operational change within the College to facilitate improved trainee engagement with more transparency.

The Trainees’ Advisory Council (TAC) brings together trainee representatives from across various College committees, Faculties, Sections and Networks, and includes the Associations of Psychiatry Trainees. The TAC is an advisory body and provides advice to the Bi-national Committee for Trainees (BCT). The BCT is made up of a Chair, Deputy Chair and a jurisdictional representative from Aotearoa and each state and territory in Australia. If you would like to learn more about how the trainee representation structures work, the Psych Matters podcast episode on Navigating the trainee representation landscape is worth a listen.

Representation is only one part of the engagement jigsaw puzzle. Since 2023, we have had a dedicated trainee engagement strategy that sets out the key principles underpinning what we do, and operationalises these concepts into tangible changes for all trainees. We’ve also heard more about trainees’ needs through surveys on trainee engagement and the burden of assessment.  

Our trainee representatives have been a vital part of:

• Improving our trainees’ onboarding experience – from hosting bi-national orientation webinars for trainees who couldn’t make it to their local branch event, to providing new trainees with a welcome pack containing a personal message from the President, membership certificate, gift, and information on how to get involved.
• Providing direct and first-hand feedback to improve College communications and information dissemination – particularly when it comes to changes in assessments and timelines for notification.
• Co-developing a survey to identify how the College can better support trainees experiencing professional or personal difficulties – with nine recommendations to be implemented. These include assessment reform, flexible training options, strengthening supervisor support capability, getting the right information on wellbeing support when it is most needed, and resourcing local social and peer-support activities for trainees.
• Making the work of the TAC and BCT more visible – with meeting papers available through the meeting papers portal on the RANZCP website and the Trainee Matters column in Australasian Psychiatry.

Finally, I want to acknowledge and celebrate the countless trainees who give up their time to help improve training and College processes for all their peers.

It’s not just those who sit on the TAC and BCT; trainees are integral members of accreditation panels that ensure standards of training are met, they contribute to the testing of new processes like the online MEQ examination platform and are valued members of working groups that continually reform and improve training in psychiatry.

This doesn’t just benefit us as trainees; it benefits the College as a whole, and the communities of Australia and Aotearoa.