Guidance for Professional Support Appointments

This guidance outlines what postgraduate doctors, dentists and public health practitioners in training (PGDiTs) can expect from a Professional Support appointment and the Professional Support Team, as well as what we expect from you in return.

All PGDiTs are kindly asked to read this information carefully when preparing for a Professional Support Appointment.

The purpose of a meeting with the Professional Support Team is to:

Provide a confidential space, away from your training programme, to discuss difficulties and challenges arising in your personal or professional life that are impacting your training.
This may include:
- Support and signposting to professional support and wellbeing resources.
- Helping you to navigate career decisions.
- Helping you to develop strategies that might improve your training outcomes.
- Discussing the impact of non-progressive ARCP outcomes and signpost resources that can be accessed to support you in your training.

Please be aware that the Professional Support Team cannot:

Influence ARCP outcomes.
Influence training programmes, rotations or training placements.
Influence rota design.
Influence decisions about OOP requests that have been declined.
Act as your Doctor or Primary Care Provider.

Please note the following about organising your appointment:

As standard, meetings are scheduled virtually via Microsoft Teams, being more efficient for the Professional Support Team in terms of time and geography.
In exceptional circumstances, meetings can take place in person; usually at one of the Faculty Offices in Rotherham, Leeds or Hull. A face-to-face meeting can be requested by contacting the Professional Support Team. We will endeavour to accommodate your request but please note this will be dependent upon the team member's availability to travel on the date of your appointment.
Appointments are scheduled for 60 minutes and usually last 45 minutes.
At the point of booking, you will be sent a calendar appointment containing the Microsoft Teams joining link.
You will also receive an automated email two days beforehand, reminding you of your appointment date and time.

Please consider the following suggestions to prepare for your appointment:

The only preparation we expect you to undertake in advance of your appointment is reading and familiarising yourself with the Guidance for Professional Support Appointments.
We recognise some people find it helpful to order their thoughts before speaking to someone, and have provided a few recommendations below should you wish to use them:
- Make a few bullet point notes about the main things you would like to address in the discussion. There may not be time to cover everything, so prioritise a summary of what is most important to you right now and why it is so important.
- You may find it helpful to think about what is important to you in life, write each one down on card and physically prioritise them. For instance, if family is more important to you than training right now, don't be afraid to put that at the top of your priority list. We won't judge you.
- Reflect on what actions you have taken already and/or what orhers have suggested to you, and think about why this hasn't provided a way forward yet: what was missing, what were the hurdles?
- Think about what "good" could look like in your particular situation. Maybe that is achieving the job you want or changing the way you work. Remember - this is what "good! looks like to you, and not others!
Remember, above all, whoever you speak to in Professional Support are not there to tell you what to do and they probably won't give you absolute answers. They are there to help find the right way forward for you, based on your needs.

Please note the following arrangements for the meeting:

For us to provide you with the best support, it is important that you are fully honest about your situation and disclose all pertinent information.
To get the most out of the meeting, please arrive on time, ensure you have a stable internet connection and join the meeting from a private space.
The team member you meet will encourage you to think independently and form your own ideas and solutions.
They will ask you questions to better understand your circumstances and will offer advice, ideas and sugesstions for your benefit, based on the services and resources available through the deanery and their own knowledge and experience.
The Professional Support Team will make a record of your meeting discussions and any agreed outcomes on an online encounter form. Upon submission, you will automatically receive a copy of the form via email. We save a copy of the encounter form in your secure Professional Support file, which is only accessible to the Professional Support Team. This ensures we have a record of your past engagement with the team, should you wish to access Professional Support again.
It is your responsibility to share a copy of the form with a third party (such as you Educational Supervisor or Training Programme Director), if you choose.
We will not record the meeting in your e-portfolio, however, you are encouraged to document circumstances relevant to your training in your e-portfolio and Form R declarations.

Please be aware of your responsibilities following the meeting:

You will be responsible for taking any action(s) arising from the discussions and outcomes of your Professional Support appointment.
We will not ordinarily organise a subsequent meeting for you. However, if agreed that a follow-up meeting would be in your interests, a second meeting may be scheduled at the end of this first appointment.
If you another appointment is not scheduled and you identify that an additional meeting would be beneficial to discuss your progress or seek further help, you are welcome to request one by contacting the Professional Support Team.

Cancellation of appointments:

From time to time, we may need to cancel and reschedule a meeting owing to sickness, rota changes or other emergencies. Where this is the case, we will provide as much notice as is possible.
Likewise, we understand you may experience unexpected circumstances that mean you need to cancel an appointment. Where this is the case, please notify the Professional Support team via email as soon as possible. The Professional Support Team all have very full diaries and the more notice you can give us, the better, as we will always try to offer the appointment to someone else as who is waiting. We will liaiise with you via email to reschedule your appointment.

Non-attendance:

If you do not attend an appointment and have not notified us of this in advance, we will be concerned about your unexplained absence. In this case, we will send you a checking-in email to understand why you were unable to attend.
If after being absent at an initial appointment, you subsequently fail to attend a rescheduled meeting, we will contact your educators and recommend they discuss with you the professional behaviours expected: please remember that, although supportive, this is still a professional meeting and we expect you to treat it accordingly, just as we will.