As natural disasters become more frequent and severe, healthcare organizations are tasked with ensuring both operational continuity and workforce wellbeing. This study examines the preparedness, response, and recovery efforts of a nationally ranked children’s hospital in the southeastern United States during the 2024 hurricane season, focusing specifically on the experiences of advanced psychology trainees.

Doctoral and postdoctoral trainees (N = 9) completed a brief anonymous survey examining departmental and organizational hurricane preparedness strategies and response following two successive hurricanes.

Results revealed variable engagement of trainees with preparedness materials and increased distress with threat of the second storm. Communication from training directors was identified as a key support factor, with trainees preferring personalized updates over broader organizational messaging. While most trainees reported their long-term career decisions are unlikely to be impacted by their hurricane experiences, one-third noted that geographic risk may influence future professional choices.

Findings highlight the importance of integrating disaster preparedness into training programs and underscore the need for tailored supports to promote psychological resilience during times of uncertainty. Limitations and recommendations for future multi-site, multi-informant, mixed-methods research are discussed to inform best practices in disaster preparedness for healthcare trainees.

Effective doctor–patient communication is a core competency for healthcare professionals. With the pivot to online clinical education and assessment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a need to explore the views of psychiatric trainees and examiners on assessment of communication skills during online high stakes postgraduate examinations.

The study was designed as descriptive qualitative research. All candidates and examiners of the September and November 2020 sitting of online Basic Specialist Training exam (a clinical Objective Structured Clinical Examination exam completed in the first 4 years of psychiatry training) were invited to participate. The respondents were interviewed by Zoom which was transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed by NVivo20 pro and various themes and subthemes were drawn using Braun and Clarke thematic analysis.

A total of seven candidates and seven examiners were interviewed with an average duration of 30 minutes and 25 minutes, respectively. Four main themes emerged: Communication, Screen optimization, Continuation postpandemic and Overall experience. All candidates preferred to continue an online format post pandemic for practical reasons e.g., avoiding travel and overnight stay, while all examiners preferred to go back to in-person Objective Structured Clinical Examination. However, continuation of online Clinical Formulation and Management Examination was agreed by both groups.

The participants were largely satisfied with the online examination but did not consider it equal to face-to-face for picking up nonverbal cues. Overall minimal technical issues were reported. These findings may be helpful to modify current psychiatry membership examinations or similar assessments in other countries and specialties.

No significant relationships.

The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic were many and daunting. Almost overnight, the lives of millions of people all over Europe was disrupted and people had to adapt to a completely new situation. Healthcare personal were amongst the ones most affected by it, whether by changes in their everyday work routine or by being the people directly in charge of responding to the demands of the pandemic. Trainees are an indispensable part of healthcare personal and, as a result, they were vastly affected by the pandemic.

Discussing the role of National Trainees Associations (NTAs) in pandemic times, including how they dealt with the new challenges, their successes and hardships, and their steps going forward.

Gathering of institutional information about the work of the Portuguese, Irish and Turkish NTAs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Critical appraisal of each of their contributions and projects.

There were impacts to trainees’ clinical work, formative activities and even personal lives. Amidst this turmoil, NTAs were precious institutions. Their objective is to represent the trainees of each country, looking for formative opportunities and linking trainees. During the pandemic, the work developed by the NTAs increase in importance, serving as a beacon of important information and as intermediaries in a number of discussions. They also aimed to minimize the impact on formative activities, whether by providing recommendations or by organizing some form of educational activity.

We provide some national examples – Portugal, Ireland and Turkey – and draw comparisons and lessons from each one.

No significant relationships.

Migration of mental health professionals is an important phenomenon influencing mental health services of host and donor countries. Data on medical migration in Europe is very limited, particularly in the field of young doctors and psychiatry. To research this hot topic, the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT) conducted the EFPT Brain Drain Survey.

To identify the impact of previous short-term mobility on international migration and to understand characteristics, patterns and reasons of migration.

In this cross-sectional European multicentre study, data were collected from 2281 psychiatric trainees across 33 countries. All participants answered to the EFPT Brain Drain Survey reporting their attitudes and experiences on migration.

Two-thirds of the trainees had not had a short-mobility experience in their lifetime, but those that went abroad were satisfied with their experiences, reporting that these influenced their attitude towards migration positively. However, the majority of the trainees had not had a migratory experience of more than 1 year. Flows showed that Switzerland and United Kingdom have the greatest number of immigrant trainees, whereas Germany and Greece have the greatest number of trainees leaving. ‘'Pull factors'’ were mostly academic and personal reasons, whereas ‘'push factors'’ were mainly: academic and financial reasons. Trainees that wanted to leave the country were significantly more dissatisfied with their income.

The majority of the trainees has considered leaving the country they currently lived in, but a lower percentage has taken steps towards migration.