939 – Young psychiatrists' network: development of a forum for international collaboration

Abstract

The Young Psychiatrists' Network (YPN) is an international group of young psychiatrists (YP) from Eastern and Western European countries organizing annual meetings to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experience between YPs from different backgrounds, promote networking and development of leadership skills. To evaluate the YPN Meetings in Eastern Europe. The 3rd YPN Meeting, was held in September 2012 in Minsk, Belarus. 74 YPs from 21 countries participated. At the end of the conference anonymous evaluation surveys were distributed. 52 participants from 14 countries returned the survey (70%). In contrast to the previous meeting in Riga where ⅔ participants received grants, in Minsk all participants attended self-funded. It was the first YPN meeting for 60% of them. The meeting was evaluated positively by all participants and 44% expressed a wish to actively organize a consecutive meeting. Majority of participants thought that the meeting would have positive influence on their professional career (81%) and personal development (88%). Some questions addressed 21 participants who had attended the previous meeting in order to measure effects on YPs' activities in the past year. ⅓ of participants stated that the meeting changed their clinical practice, 90% reported indirect and 86% direct personal contact with international colleagues after the meeting. As the result of previous meeting 81% of them became involved in national and 62% in international trainee/YPs organizations. 52% established international research contacts. YPN Meetings seem to be valuable, and have major impact on personal growth, networking and collaborative research.