Special Interest Opportunities

Introduction to Professional Development Sessions (PDS) (formerly Special Interest Sessions)

Throughout Higher Specialist Training in Psychiatry, you will have the opportunity to spend one day per week pro rata undertaking a PDS. This should be a clinical or clinically related area of service in which you wish to develop experience. Royal College of Psychiatry Specialist Trainee Curricula offer clear guidance on the importance of this protected time which is intended to directly contribute to the prospective career pathway of trainees.

(excerpt - Silver Guide June 22)

Choosing your PDS

We work closely with Clinicians from across the regions NHS trusts to maintain an up to date list of the excellent opportunities across the East of England. These range across a wide range of clinical specialities and also include many others as shown on the table below. There will also be other opportunities not listed that you are able to arrange yourself. If you do find opportunities which others might benefit from in future please ‘pay it forward’ by completing with your supervisor a PDS registration template via the resources tab below.

Clinical Speciality	56
Management Leadership	2
Quality Improvement/Audit	7
Medical Education	4
Psychotherapy	5
Research	2
Total	79

Hear from two of our Trainees, Dr Jamie Wright and Dr Felix Clay about their Professional Development Sessions experiences.

PDS Approval and Sign off

You should discuss your ideas for your Professional Development Session with your Clinical and Educational Supervisors and get your local TPD to approve the details. You will be expected to get a report from your PDS supervisor for your portfolio, so that you can demonstrate your learning at your ARCPs. There is a form below that you may wish to use for this purpose, although any clear entry or upload on your Portfolio should be acceptable. Please explore the information below and get in touch with the PDS supervisors via Jo Saunders

Professional Development Sessions are a unique feature of Higher Specialist Training - what will you choose?

Resources

Click to explore the map of Professional Development Sessions in our region provided by the following Trusts access the SEARCHABLE LIST for the full range of opportunities open to you as well as further details and expectations. We have set up the file so that it is searchable by different fields (county, trust, location and speciality headline)