Transparency around rotation planning

Dear all,

Happy new year all and hope you got some time to rest.

One of the queries raised in the trainee feedback during STC meeting was transparency around rotation planning where a few trainees felt their preferences/choices were not taken into consideration. I am sorry they felt this way.

I got an opportunity over the Xmas/NY to review 2022 preference forms and allocations that I made for Aug 2022.

I can confirm:

• 83% (87/106 trainees) were given one of their 3 preference(s) 

• 65% (69/106 trainees) were given their 1st preference

• 17% (19/106 trainees) were offered other available spots (not their preferred ones). I can also confirm that I personally had a discussion with each of them and their TPD before we agreed on a placement. 
  

Thanks all.

Sincerely, 

Rathi

 Dr Rathi Ramakrishnan MD, FRCPath

TPD meeting 29.11.22 - Trainee feedback responses

A Training Programme Director (TPD) Meeting took place on 29th November 2022.

Histopathology registrars of London and South East were encouraged in advance to submit and queries, concerns and comments for discussion at this meeting.

Click here for the password-protected page containing the TPD responses to trainee feedback.

A Speciality Training Committee (STC) Meeting is scheduled to take place on 20th December 2022.

If you have any feedback that you would like to share on the current state of training, please let us know by completing trainee feedback survey. This will then be discussed at the STC meeting on the 20th of December. 

International Survey of Medical Cytopathology Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dear trainees,

My name is Nataliya Piletska, and I am a senior histopathology registrar working in North West London Pathology, hosted by Imperial College London NHS Trust. I am also the Regional Representative for HistoLaSE.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about many challenges to cytopathology training, leading to many changes and adaptations.

Survey link: https://forms.gle/yj2znZEEwbxHrJL26

This survey aims to address the experiences of cellular pathology trainees and pay particular attention to the impacts of COVID-19 on cytopathology training. This survey has been commissioned for publication in the journal Cytopathology, in an issue dedicated to COVID-19.

We would be grateful if you could complete this survey, which should take approximately 5 minutes, by 7th November 2022. The individual responses will be anonymous, but the responses will be analysed by country, to look for differences which may help plan future training in cytopathology.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely,

Nataliya

Autopsy Teaching by Prof Sebastian Lucas

Prof Sebastian Lucas will be delivering series of autopsy lectures during this academic year starting from September 7th 2022. Junior trainees (ST1/ST2) and senior trainees who are continuing autopsy training will find these teaching sessions really useful.

Click here to see the programme (September - January)

The sessions will be held on Wednesday 1-2 pm in the Large Seminar Room at St Thomas’ Hospital, Department of Cellular Pathology, Level 2, North Wing.

Trainees can join these sessions remotely via the link on this page (password-protected).

Annual School of Pathology Virtual Conference: Beyond the Science - 1st September 2022

Dear all,

Every year the London KSS School of Pathology Trainees come together in a training day that keeps us connected and in touch with cutting-edge achievements in our field.

This year, we can all contribute by sharing one of our challenging cases and what we learned from it. Ideally please include a question with answer feedback. All cases will be shared with the Trainees of the School and shortlisted ones will be presented in the Conference!

Looking forward to seeing you all (albeit virtually!) on the day.

Best wishes,

The conference organising committee

Fellowships in Clinical Artificial Intelligence

The London AI Centre invite applications for the UK's first Fellowships in Clinical Artificial Intelligence.

The post duration is 1 year at 2 days/wk, beginning in May 2022. It is open to specialty trainees in the London region and Kent Surrey Sussex region. These fellowships are funded and supported by Health Education England. The deadline for applications is 30th January 2022.

Fellows will gain expertise in Clinical Artificial Intelligence (AI) in an integrated pathway alongside their specialty training and implement groundbreaking work in the use of state-of-the-art AI software in live hospital environments.

For more information, click here to read the flier and click here to visit the website.

RCPath Midlands and East of England Surgery

Message from The Royal College of Pathologists, 1st November:

I am writing to invite you to join me at the first RCPath Midlands and East of England surgery, where all members in the region are warmly invited to meet with me via a Microsoft Teams virtual session. This will be an open forum for me to meet you and hear about your work, areas of concern and any points of interest that you wish to raise with me. I plan to hold these in the time before College Council meets in order to present our region’s interests and concerns to this body. These surgeries are hopefully also an opportunity for you to meet via Teams with colleagues across our region.

The surgery will be held on Friday 5 November 2021, 10am-12pm. Please see joining link below:

Join on your computer or mobile app

Click here to join the meeting

Learn More

In addition to this, I am available via my College email address laszlo.igali@rcpath.org to hear from you with topics that you feel are of importance for the College.

All the best

Laszlo

Dr Laszlo Igali

English Regional Representative to Council (Midlands and East of England)

Royal College of Pathologists

HEE: Study Leave Newsletter

Newsletter from the Study Leave Team, Health Education England:

Dear trainees,

We are writing with a few updates with regards to study leave policies on international events and leadership courses.

International Study Leave

We wanted to provide a reminder on international study leave rules:

Please note that all international study leave events must be approved via the aspirational study leave process and will require an aspirational approval code in order to claim reimbursement. International, for the purposes of study leave, is defined as those events taking place outside the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Funding will be approved for the lower amount of either the course fee or the travel and accommodation expenses. In cases where the course fee has been waived, there is a cap of £500 maximum on travel and accommodation expenses.

With regards to Covid travel restrictions, please note that any international leave should align to current UK Government regulations and those of the host country. Any costs associated with quarantine expenses cannot be claimed from the HEE study leave budget. You should discuss any additional leave (either unpaid or paid) required for enforced quarantine periods with your employing Trust.

Online International Events – now aspirational

From 1st October 2021 onwards, all online international events will now require an aspirational approval code. Please note that this is a change to our previous policy, in which virtual events could be claimed using the general conference code from the course lists. If you are applying to attend a virtual international event please note that you will need to submit an aspirational study leave application. The full aspirational study leave application process can be found on our website here: https://lasepgmdesupport.hee.nhs.uk/helpdesk/attachments/7067965990. Please note that online international events will not count towards your international conference limit.

Leadership Courses

From 28th April 2021, all leadership courses that attract a cost have required approval via the aspirational study leave process. Trainees seeking leadership training should in the first instance access the free NHS Leadership Academy Edward Jenner or the LEEP programme delivered by an NHS Trust or HEE, and only seek to apply for a funded leadership course if these options are not available. Please see the FAQ here for more details on this: https://lasepgmdesupport.hee.nhs.uk/support/solutions/articles/7000064656-can-i-apply-for-a-leadership-management-course-.

Please do contact the study leave team if you have any questions about the study leave process. We can be reached via the following link on the PGMDE Support Portal: https://lasepgmdesupport.hee.nhs.uk/support/tickets/new?form_25=true.

Kind regards,

Study Leave Team

HistoLaSE Annual General Meeting 2021

The HistoLaSE Annual General Meeting will be taking place on Monday 27th of September, 19:00 - 20:00 PM (BST).

Please click here to find the agenda and joining details (password-protected page).

We welcome you all to join the meeting.

RCPath Trainees’ Advisory Committee - September 2021

To access the Trainees Update from Dr Matthew Clarke, Chair of the RCPath Trainees Advisory Committee please click here (Password-protected page).

HistoLaSE Trainees Committee

The HistoLaSE Trainees Committee is looking for enthusiastic trainees to join the team.

The posts include:

• Communications Officers (up to two posts available)

• ST1 Representative

• Trust Grade Representative

This is an excellent opportunity to build confidence in leadership and managerial roles. You can find the description of the role here, as well as information about the committee in general.

Please email histolase@gmail.com with your CV, current rotation site, grade, and preferred position on the committee.

The deadline for application is 19th September. We look forward to hearing from you!

Paediatric Pathology Lectures for ST1 - ST2s

Dr Sadia Zafreen, an ST5 Paediatric Pathology trainee, has kindly organised a series of lectures with a number of speakers to cover aspects of paediatric and perinatal pathology outlined in the new ICPT curriculum. They will be held on Teams on Tuesdays at 14:00 PM (BST). These lectures are aimed at ST1s, although interested ST2s are welcome too. You will be receiving the invite in due course. More information can be found here.

• 21/09/21 - 14:00 - 16:00 PM (BST) - Placenta grossing parts 1 and 2

• 28/09/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Normal placenta histology

• 05/10/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Placenta: Inflammatory lesions

• 26/10/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Placenta: Vascular malperfusion

• 02/11/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Importance of perinatal autopsy

• 09/11/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Perinatal autopsy techniques

• 16/11/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Pathology of early pregnancy loss

• 23/11/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Autopsy case presentations: IUD/Stillbirth

• 30/11/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Autopsy case presentations: TOPFA

• 11/01/22 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Common aneuploidies and cardiac malformations

• 18/01/22 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Neuroblastoma and nephroblastoma

• 25/01/22 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - ALL, Burkitt’s and Hodgkin’s lymphoma

• 01/02/22 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Rhabdomyosarcoma and other paediatric soft tissue tumours

• 08/02/22 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Paediatric surgical pathology taster - congenital anomalies, common skin lesions and GI pathology

ST1 Handbook 2021-2022

The ST1 Handbook 2021-2022 can be found on the password-protected ST1 page here.

National Training Survey

From 27th July, you can find out the results of the 2021 national training survey.

Your responses will help us make sure you and your colleagues get the experiences and support you need and deserve during your training. And they'll be a key source for us, education bodies and employers to support training to recover from the pandemic.

Thank you for filling in this year's survey, particularly at this time of huge challenge. There's an overview of the results in the next section of this email.

Read a summary of key findings or find your organisation or specialty results

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What you told us - your progression and wellbeing

With over 63,000 responses, the survey gives us the most complete picture so far of how the pandemic has impacted your training, wellbeing and workload. While the standard of training remains high, burnout has increased to the highest level since we started asking these questions in 2018. Many of you also highlighted concerns about opportunities to gain the required competencies for your training.

• Almost nine in ten trainees described their clinical supervision as good or very good. And three quarters of you said that virtual learning environments were being used effectively to support your training.

• A third of you told us you felt burnt out or very burnt out as a result of your work. This is up from a quarter of trainees last year. 44% of you said you felt emotionally exhausted to a high or very high degree as a result of your work.

• Eight out of ten trainees were confident they'd be able to progress to the next stage of training. However, 31% of you felt you haven't been able to compensate for lost opportunities through transferable skills from other aspects of your training.

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How your answers influence change

As we work through the pandemic, doctors' wellbeing must be central to service and training recovery. We'll continue to do everything we can to speak up about why that's essential for training progression, for the future of the medical workforce and for patient care.

Your responses help us work with others to tackle local and UK-wide issues to improve training:

• Along with postgraduate deans, employers and royal colleges, we'll use the data to resolve problems at individual workplaces and share good practice across the UK. Watch our video from when we launched this year's survey to learn more about how we do this.

• We'll continue to join with royal colleges and education bodies to help trainees catch up on competencies that might have been missed due to the pandemic.

• We're working with employers and education bodies to create training environments which are more supportive, inclusive and fair for all. This includes the targets we've set ourselves to eliminate discrimination, disadvantage and unfairness in medical education and training by 2031. Your survey responses help us measure change and pinpoint where we need to drive improvements.

Thanks once again for the extraordinary professionalism you have shown throughout the past year.

Kind regards,

Professor Colin Melville

Twitter: @drcolinm

GMC no: 2806806

Medical Director and Director of Education and Standards

General Medical Council

PathSoc/ASiT: Educational Webinars - Call for Volunteers

The Path Soc trainee subcommittee will be partnering with Association of Surgeons in Training (ASiT) to deliver educational webinars in September 2021 covering essentials in histopathology for surgical trainees preparing to sit the MRCS.

We are therefore seeking volunteer trainees (post FRCPath Part 1) who wish to participate in this teaching opportunity (great for CV/ portfolio!).

We will be aiming to discuss common entities and the relevant histological features, molecular characteristics, grading and staging, screening, important definitions.

The format will be three evening webinars, with each webinar comprising two 1-hour sessions covering the following specialties:

• Breast

• GI

• Urology

• Skin/MSK

• Head & Neck

There will also be an introductory session to basic principles/definitions in histopathology.

Volunteer presenters will be asked to assist in preparing these presentations with help from the organising team from Path Soc TSC, and deliver the session virtually on the assigned date (TBC, will be in the evenings).

If you are interested please contact Solange De Noon.

ARCP derogation guidance for 2021

The General Medical Council and Health Education England (on behalf of all Statutory Education Bodies) have approved the RCPath ARCP derogation guidance for 2021 and it is now available on the College website: COVID-19: information for trainees (rcpath.org)

Please note that for histopathology and chemical pathology, the College also has approval from the GMC that passing the Stage A examination is no longer a requirement for trainees who were in Stage A last year or those currently in Stage A. Information about this is included in the ARCP derogation guidance and there is additional guidance for histopathology.

Please read the guidance linked above carefully. Some highlights include the following:

Stage A

Trainees in the following categories, must also refer to the ARCP guidance:

Stage A examination:

• all trainees who entered ST1 histopathology training from August 2019.

• all current ST1 histopathology trainees (beginning August 2020).

• any trainees who entered histopathology training prior to August 2019 who have not passed the Stage A examination.

Trainees in the above categories must submit a completed Assessment of Performance (AoP) form as part of their ARCP evidence. Trainees currently in ST1 must submit a minimum of one AoP and trainees in ST2 must submit a minimum of two AoPs(one for each year of training). The AoPs replace the Stage A examination which has been cancelled due to Covid-19.

Critical progression points

• The critical progression points are for trainees moving from stages B to C and stages C to D as well as any trainees in Stage D who have sufficient evidence to demonstrate that they have completed their training.

• Trainees in Stages B and C who have sufficient evidence to present to the ARCP panel of the curriculum defined competences and who are in possession of the FRCPath Part 1 (for progression to Stage C) and FRCPath Part 2 (for progression to Stage D) may proceed to the appropriate stage of training may be awarded an outcome 1 and progress to the next stage of training.

• Trainees in Stages B and C who are not in possession of the FRCPath Part 1 (for progression to Stage C) and FRCPath Part 2 (for progression to Stage D) should be awarded an outcome 10.2 where the delay has been caused by COVID-19 disruption, or an outcome 3 where it has not (e.g. related to repeated examination failure).

• Trainees in stage D who have sufficient evidence to present to the ARCP panel of the curriculum defined competencies may be awarded an outcome 6 and apply for CCT if they are within 6 months of their projected CCT date.

The minimum data set for each year of training

For the 2021 ARCPs, it is expected that the Educational Supervisors Structured Report (ESSR) will be a key part of the evidence. It may include indicative assessment of the trainee, mindful of the impact of COVID-19. The portfolio of evidence provided by the trainee for the period under review can include:

• any workplace-based assessments completed. The number of workplace-based assessments required for each year or stage of training is indicative (see curriculum). These can include any undertaken during redeployment which demonstrate evidence of generic or other relevant skills;

• any indicative cases undertaken;

• an MSF (although trainees who have not completed a required MSF but are otherwise satisfactory must undertake their MSF in the following year);

• suitable and appropriate alternative evidence (see ‘Learning Experiences’ listed in the curriculum for guidance - pages 18-19);

• any College exams completed.

Where there is overall evidence that a trainee is generally achieving progress and competences at the expected rate but has not been able to provide the indicative number of workplace-based assessments, suitable and appropriate alternative evidence can be taken into consideration.

Where there is overall evidence that satisfactory progress is not being made and an indicative number of workplace-based assessments has not been provided, trainees will generally be required to complete additional workplace-based assessments in the following year, as determined by the ARCP Panel.

The ARCP Panel are encouraged to be very clear with all trainees about any additional training, competencies, assessments or other requirements that must be achieved in the following year and document these accordingly.

There is clear guidance in each curricula and/or in additional guidance about the requirements for each stage or year of training. ARCP Panels are encouraged to refer to these, and existing ARCP guidance, and make an overall judgement about progression for each trainee, taking into account impact of COVID-19.

Further information including how the ARCP will be conducted, criteria for non-progression, and detailed ARCP outcomes can be found here.

ARCP Guidance

Health Education England have issued guidance regarding the ARCP preparations. This communication, as well as general advice, can be found here (password-protected page).

PathSoc - Trainees’ Sub-Committee Elections

The Trainees’ Sub-committee of the Pathological Society normally comprises 10 pathology trainee members of the Society from all over the UK and Ireland with a wide range of experience in histopathology and research. Their aim is to focus on the needs of trainees with an interest in academic pathology; they would like to support any trainees who are either currently engaged in research or, perhaps more importantly, trainees with little or no research experience who would like to get involved in research/training.

PathSoc is seeking enthusiastic and dynamic pathology trainees to join the sub-committee. Interested parties must be a pathology trainee concessionary member and must be nominated and seconded by other pathology trainee concessionary members.

The deadline for nomination submission is Wednesday 21st April 2021.

You can find more information here.

HistoLaSE Constitution

The HistoLaSE Constitution has been ratified on 22nd February 2021 and can be found here (password-protected page).

PPE: Pathologist and the Pandemic Evolution

PPE: Pathologist and the Pandemic Evolution

The London and South East School of Pathology 12th Annual and 1st Virtual Trainee Conference  

SAVE THE DATE 

30TH March 2021   

9:30 –13:00  

Venue –  MS Teams 

On behalf of the organising committee, we are pleased to announce the upcoming trainee conference, the first to be held virtually. We hope as many of you attend as possible. Much has changed globally since the last conference in February 2020, and the theme for this year’s conference draws from events over the past year. We would greatly welcome trainees who are interested in taking part in marking submitted abstracts.

Click here for more information (password-protected page).