TWO trainee psychiatrists at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust have shared their research on improving the working experience of junior doctors at a prestigious gathering of their peers.

Sheridan McWilliam and Alistair Fraser shared their work at the recent Royal College of Psychiatrists Quality Improvement Project meeting in London.

Their work was based around improving the experience of junior doctors at the Trust to ultimately improve patient experience and safety.

Sheridan, who is currently in her second year as a trainee psychiatrist, carried out a quality improvement project on improving the on-call duty system for trainee doctors.

She looked at how to make the system, which looks after patients out of hours and picks up emergencies, more effective.

Her work was based at Bushey Fields Hospital and Dorothy Pattinson Hospital and saw her work with doctors, nurses, and other staff to understand the issue from their perspectives, along with working to improve handover systems and ensure staff meets regularly to resolve issues.

She presented her findings at the Royal College of Psychiatrists recently, as part of a Quality Improvement Project forum, which saw professionals from all over the world share their work.

Sheridan said: “On a personal level it was great to build my confidence and it was an inspiring conference to be part of. The work was received well and I think people appreciated having their voices heard. I had great encouragement from the Trust and my supervisor Dr Narula was really supportive.”

She was joined by Alistair Fraser, who shared his work on the introduction of an induction handbook for all trainee doctors at the Trust.

Alistair and his team carried out a questionnaire to find out what information new doctors wanted and then set to write the handbook, which includes handy details such as site-specific information and what to do in an emergency, all written from the perspective of what a trainee doctor new to the Trust needs to find their feet.

The handbook was launched in August 2022 with positive feedback and has been made available on the Trust’s intranet. It will be updated to support new junior doctors who join Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Alistair said: “It’s good to do a quality improvement project generally but this was rewarding as it involved listening to people and trying to make something useful for them. It was nice to use my own experience as a junior doctor to help others.”

The duo were supervised by Dr. Amitav Narula, Director of Medical Education at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr. Narula said: “It is great for BCHFT to see our core trainee doctors participate in Quality Improvement Projects which lead to safe patient care. To be able to represent the teams at a national meeting builds the reputation of the Trust, not only promoting patient safety but the quality of training and support we provide to all doctors.”