A pre-project survey for use of a social media platform for trainee psychiatrists across 5 mental health trusts in UK (Matheiken, 2020)

Introduction: The Psychiatry training programs for doctors in UK is overseen by geographically divided Deaneries, which have different Mental Health Trusts within them who are the employer for the trainees. This brings challenges in having a platform where trainees can discuss training matters, events, academic disucssions, educational queries etc beyond what is available at a Trust level. Under the Psychaitric Trainees Commitee of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, it was planned that Workplace (by Facebook) App will be piloted in 2 Deaneries acorss UK. Objective(s): 1. To assess current status in trainee engagement and which platforms are being used. 2. To assess the interest in using planned App as a pilot 3. To understand for what purposes trainees would want to use this Methods: A 6 question survey was created and circulated across 4 Trusts by email via the Head of School. Result(s): 28 responses were received from 110 trainees The most commonly used platform for communication was Whatsapp (96%) but this was limited to each Trust's trainees. 81% felt it would be useful to have such an App as a common platform. 96% felt this could be used for sharing opportunities, events, grants etc. 82% felt this could be used to find out about various special interest sessions available to higher trainees. Conclusion(s): Given that the average response rate for surveys is 30-40%, the response rate is not surprising.We hope that the pilot (that is now active) will improve trainee engagement and enhance trainee experience while using a secure platform which adheres to GDPR.