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The first SpRs in Geriatrics training weekend, sponsored by NAPP Pharmaceuticals was held in Cambridge in November.

While the professional members of the steering committee, haired by Dr Tom Robinson, controlled the entire educational programme, Axon Communications organised and NAPP UK Corporate Affairs facilitated the whole process. This unique set-up allowed us to deliver a training weekend which was designed by trainees for trainees.

Of the 38 trainees from across the UK who registered for the weekend, 35 attended the actual event. The delegates who arrived in time for the Friday evening session discussed the management dilemmas of three case scenarios (acute stroke, syncope and chronic pain) as an ice-breaking evening. Those who arrived later joined the evening dinner held in the Dome Dinning Hall at New Hall.

Saturday was divided into four sessions (of two hours each) with breaks for coffee and lunch in between. Speakers kindly agreed to run their presentations twice, rotating around the session, in the interests of promoting interaction and participation within a smaller sized audience.

The most popular event of the programme was the mock interview for a generic consultant geriatrician job, fielded with an experienced interview panel on the Sunday morning. The whole interview process was relayed to the auditorium so that all attendees could watch the interviews. The four volunteers will be supplied with a DVD of their own interview. The real time interview panel discussion of each candidate’s performance was also relayed to the auditorium, which gave the audience the opportunity to vote for the individual candidates and to observe how the final decision was reached by the panel.

Of the 35 delegates, 31 evaluation forms were completed and returned, giving a response rate of 88.57%. On average, respondents had just started their third year as an SpR: the mean year recorded was 3.17.

Respondents were asked to rate the overall content of the weekend’s programme and its relevance on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Responses are summarised in figures 1-3.

All except one delegate (who was hoping to have achieved a consultancy in the near future) expressed an interest in attending future SpRinG training weekends. Delegates were also asked to provide some written comments - all of which were positive.

In summary, as the inaugural weekend, the SpRinG meeting was extremely well received. The enthusiasm of the attending SpRs is demonstrated by the number of evaluation form respondents, the quantitative scores (no parameter receiving a mean score of less than 4), the qualitative feedback and, ultimately, the interest in attending future educational weekends expressed by all eligible trainees who responded to the questionnaire.

Acknowledgements
On behalf of the trainees who attended the training weekend we gratefully acknowledge Dr Tom Robinson, Senior Lecturer in Ageing and Stroke Medicine, University of Leicester for his support, and Dr Raj Shekhar, SpRinG steering committee member. We also thank Mr Steve Bramham-Jones and his colleagues from NAPP Pharmaceuticals Limited, and Clare Lucker, Katharine Richardson and Patricia Dessert from Axon Communications for their assistance which made the whole event enjoyable. We also would like to express our profound gratitude to invited guest speakers and the interview panel members.

Toby Black
Phyo Myint