We welcome Dr Ava Carter as the Appointed Trainee Board Director.

We would like to welcome Dr Ava Carter as the Appointed Trainee Board Director, and the chair of the Trainee Advisory Committee (TAC). Thank you too to Dr Pramudie Gunaratne for her tireless work on the Board throughout 2022. May’s stakeholder forum for training and assessment saw the Bi-national Committee for Trainees (BCT) engage and provide feedback on the future of training for psychiatry.

Since her appointment, Dr Carter has taken on her new role with vigour and excitement and has been liaising with trainees and the BCT to continue the positive momentum of advocacy and change within the College for trainees.

In May, there was a stakeholder forum held regarding future assessments in the training program, and BCT operational group members were present. Several options for assessment pathways are being considered and the BCT will remain involved.

As part of inclusion of trainees across the College, it was reassuring to see that all committees requiring trainee representatives had been appointed early this year, however as we congratulate our new Fellows, this has created more opportunities for other trainees to join the College. 

The rural pathway and concerns with rural training has been raised across multiple forums by trainees to the College, notably at the TAC meeting which saw most jurisdictions raise concerns about access to rural rotations. The next TAC meeting on the 18 August will continue to promote rural training options for trainees to the College, amongst other critical issues such as transparency, gender equity, C-L Psychiatry training in the rural pathway, bullying and harassment in medicine, and SIMG training.
 
 As the BCT approaches the end of its first term, we would like to thank all the BCT members who have contributed to date and welcome our new representatives. Our next BCT meeting is to be held in September – please contact your jurisdictional trainee representative if there are any items you would like to see discussed at this meeting.