T‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍rainee in Need of Support Scenario A 29 year old female Fou

T‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍rainee in Need of Support Scenario A 29 year old female Foundation Year 2 trainee is attached to your unit for 4 months in a LAT post at F2 level, having completed her original Foundation programme over a period of 28 months in another Deanery area outside Northern Ireland. She graduated from an English medical school as a graduate student having a previous medical sciences degree. You are her designated Educational Supervisor. It takes a period of 4 weeks into the attachment before you meet formally with the trainee to up-date the e-portfolio, despite numerous attempts to set time aside on your part. You have also noted that the trainee has not been prominent around the unit but she has not been officially in your team for clinics and ward rounds and you have been on 10 days leave during this period. The day before the scheduled meeting with the F2 your Consultant colleague, who has in fact been working with the trainee as part of his team, expresses his concerns about the trainee’s dress sense, attitude, punctuality, note-taking, prescribing and inability to prioritise. On further discussion with him he tells you that he has also received complaints from the se‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍nior nurses on the ward about difficulty in finding the trainee and her curt attitude towards them. They claim that she often makes dismissive comments about patients and other team members. One senior nurse has also indicated that this trainee is very thin and has expressed an informal “opinion” that she has an eating disorder. Your consultant colleague has also noticed a lack of participation on ward rounds and indicated that there had been clinical concerns in relation to this trainee: for example a misunderstanding of instructions regarding fluid administration resulting in congestive heart failure in one patient. Moreover an F2 colleague of this trainee has approached you to indicate that this trainee seems generally worried and withdrawn: the trainee has complained to them that she had received no induction into the unit, has been left largely unsupervised and generally doesn’t seem settled in the post, the hospital or Northern Ireland. Questions What aspects of the doctor’s behaviour concerns you and why? How might you try to manage these issues? What external agencies might have a role to play in your management of the doctor and the issues prese‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍nted here ?