FYR of Macedonia
With a lot of enthusiasm, for the first time in FYR of Macedonia, a Psychiatric trainees Section has been created (date of establishment – 11.11.2015). The Section represents the trainees in both adult psychiatry and CAP. Currently it has 24 members (21 trainees in adult psychiatry and 3 CAP trainees), which is the total number of psychiatric trainees in the country. The main activities of the Section take place at the University Clinic of Psychiatry, situated in Skopje, the capital of the republic. The first president of the Section, Miloš Milutinović, a first year trainee in adult psychiatry, was recently elected.
The other board members also elected are:
– Vice President – Vlastela Partaloska 1st year CAP
– Secretary – Emilija Kostadinova 3rd year adult psychiatry
– Treasurer – Ana Slišković 1st year adult psychiatry
– CAP representative – Suada Elezi 1st year CAP
The EFPT (especially the MENTA WG) has been very helpful for the creation of the Section and we are grateful for that. We are eager to meet psychiatric trainees from different countries, share positive and negative experiences, discuss existing problems and collaborate on future projects in the field of psychiatry.
To be honest, we cannot wait for July and the Forum in Antwerp!
Miloš Milutinović MD
1st year adult psychiatry trainee
President, Psychiatric Trainees Secton of Macedonia
University Clinic of Psychiatry – Skopje, FYR of Macedonia
Poland
The Specialty Training Section of the Polish Psychiatric Association was officially established right before the EFPT Forum in Porto in 2015 and has become a full member of the Federation. The Section has since been involved in many activities at the local and international level. We co-organised the Young Doctors Session at the Psychiatry Medforum congress in Wisla, which is the largest psychiatry congress in Poland, and were very proud to be able to host the EFPT President, Livia De Picker. We are now working on a proposal for essential changes to the psychiatry training curriculum and on the EFPT Exchange programme in Poland, as well as on several research projects, such as EFPT PSUD Survey. The Section is currently expanding and establising local divisions in Wroclaw and Warsaw, which we hope will become the basis for a strong network of psychiatric trainees in Poland. Lately we actively supported the Trainees’ Agreement (Porozumienie Rezydentów), a movement of thousands of trainees advocating for the improvement of the quality and conditions of postgraduate medical training in Poland. The year will be very important for the Section too, with the UEMS Section of Psychaitry meeting being held in Warsaw in April and the upocoming elections at the Polish Psychiatric Association Congress in June.
Tomasz M. Gondek
Spain
Up until September 2015, Spain did not have a representative association for psychiatric trainees. As a result, Spanish trainees had no representation within in relevant national organisations or even the EFPT. Our aim was to create, for the first time, the Spanish Society of Psychiatric Residents (SERP). Two of our SERP-representatives participated in an International Congress of Psychiatry Trainees in order to create contacts with our European colleagues, to learn from the European organisations and to find and use different tools for the creation of the Spanish Association of Psychiatry Trainees.
During the EFPT Forum in Porto we obtained experience and enough knowledge to start our project. Since then, we have developed a strong network among interested trainees along the country, and in September 2015 we officially established the SERP at the Spanish National Congress of Psychiatry. Our Society aims to improve the training of the Spanish psychiatric residents and to promote the active participation in different national projects (such as research, obtaining grants and the development of the Speciality of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry). Currently we are working on the First National Congress for Psychiatric Trainees which will take place in Vitoria-Gasteiz in March and we have started to organise webinars for trainees with well known organisations. We work every day with enthusiasm to make this project grow!
Nieves Gómez-Coronado
SERP Secretary