SERP: A growing society and with an European horizon

To the Editor,

As has been commented in another publication,¹ the Spanish Society of Psychiatric Residents (SERP, Sociedad Española de Residentes de Psiquiatría in Spanish) was created in September 2015 with very limited material and human resources, but with great enthusiasm about achieving an objective for which it was worthwhile fighting: to improve the training of the residents in psychiatry in Spain.

Since then, our small group of residents from all over Spain have worked with the utmost commitment to provide the format and content of our society. Backed by a growing number of members, the first executive board set the bases for an institution that hopes to be representative and useful for all the present and future Spanish residents in psychiatry. The support of many of our mentors in our hospitals, that of relatives and friends that have wanted to collaborate in one way or another, and the institutional support of the great national scientific societies and of other associations has been crucial in this process.

The recent past has been marked by great milestones in our growth. On 2 March 2016, the “1st Encounter of Residents in Psychiatry” in our country was held in Vitoria-Gasteiz (during the “24th Course on Updates in Psychiatry”), with notable and enthusiastic participation and an excellent scientific level. This Encounter was a wonderful occasion for residents from all over Spain to get to know each other and to learn about aspects of research led by the hands of young, well-known professionals. It also demonstrated the ability that we residents have to join together to achieve greater protagonism and to organise our training, backing one another up to acquire greater knowledge in matters that can be relegated to the background in the day-to-day teaching reality at many hospitals.

Turning to another event, during 12–15 March, a small group of SERP members enjoyed memorable sessions in the “24th European Congress of Psychiatry” in Madrid. Besides learning from great international experts in the symposiums and keynote presentations, the congress offered the opportunity for the first elective general assembly; the assembly participants, including delegates for members from places far away from Madrid, renewed the executive board. In Madrid we were able to get to know more residents from all parts of Spain, and to infuse them with our enthusiasm so they would join in the project. Another highly important aspect was the contact that we made there with numerous residents in psychiatry from the most diverse points of the continent. Many of these residents are managers or are part of the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT, http://www.efpt.eu), which presented at that time a summary of its projects in favour of cohesion and improvement in training of residents from Europe. All of them were very interested in including Spain in the Federation, and have backed our efforts; of course, we have a lot to learn from these colleagues and we should also share, little by little, our knowledge, experience and the energy that characterises us as Spaniards. We are currently observing members of the Federation, but we will soon have the possibility of joining as full members; in any case, the European perspective is a founding aspect of our Society: continuing to look to Europe and to let ourselves be seen by Europe is one of our main goals, which was strengthened in this month.

The fact that our handbook for future residents is receiving widespread diffusion is a source of pride for us. This handbook stands as an innovation in the medical environment in our country and is helping many recently licensed medical residents to make a decision for a post in psychiatry in Spanish hospitals. Once again, and above all in these coming weeks of final decision and first steps in the speciality, the SERP is wide open to support all of those who chose this path.

We are a Society made up of individuals with ever-growing experience, and there has been room in these initial steps for small errors and points open for improvement. We are committed to learning from the successes and from the mistakes, and we plan to listen to all suggestions and constructive criticism to do so.

At present, the SERP is keeping its hopes alive and fresh. The executive board elected has already held its first official meeting and we have numerous short-, medium- and long-term projects, as we will be announcing. We wish to thank all of those that have supported us and support us in this endeavour again. We will continue working every day to make our ideal more effective.

You can find further information about our Society and receive help from our team through our website: http://www.serpsiquiatria.org

Funding

The authors have no funding for the performance of this work to declare.

Acknowledgements

We wish to express our profound gratitude to the Spanish Society of Psychiatry and to the Spanish Society of Biological Psychiatry for their invaluable support in the development of our objectives and in the achievement of the accomplishments explained in the article.