ABSTRACT
Background The way we deliver undergraduate education has changed during the pandemic. Great Ormond Street Hospital Summer School (GSS) is an annual conference that aims to encourage medical students to consider a career in Paediatrics. Since 2020, the GSS has been delivered virtually, becoming accessible for students from the UK and abroad. Aims We analysed the impact of changing the GSS from fully in person to online and hybrid formats on participation, comparing the data from the last four conferences. Results (See figure 1). Discussion The Covid-19 pandemic encouraged us to think creatively on how we can still provide a high-quality educational experience using online technology. Students from different areas of the UK and abroad joined the GSS without incurring travel and accommodation costs. A significant increase in the percentage of international students was observed in 2021, which demonstrates the interest from those outside the UK. With the development of online fatigue and the slow return of clinical placements, we observed a decrease in the number of registrations in 2021 and 2022 compared to 2020. However, the percentage of international students remained above 20%. The conference gave us the opportunity to inspire, educate and share the innovative work we do at GOSH with a much wider audience. Students described their experiences as insightful and inspiring. With the easing of restrictions in 2022, we designed a hybrid conference, involving 2 online days and 1 day with in person workshops. Our challenge now is to continue engaging with students from inside and outside the UK and bring innovative ways to deliver our online conference.
ABSTRACT
Background Podcasts are a popular way to engage people in education. Flexibility and ease of accessibility are some of the key advantages of this media. In this oral presentation we describe the process of recording and publishing paediatric educational podcasts across several different platforms including our assurance processes to ensure content is accurate and up to date. Methods Subject matter experts (SME) for the MRCPCH release of GOSHPODS are senior clinicians at GOSH. The titles for this series of podcasts was chosen by alignment with the MRCPCH syllabus. A second SME reviewed each podcast's content. Podcasts were released across a multitude of platforms including Soundcloud Spotify Apple and GOSH Digital Education Network. Results From October 2020 to May 2021 the total numbers of podcast plays and starts was 1,928 across 35 countries. An average of 241 plays per month. The top three countries were the United Kingdom United States of America and Malaysia. A female audience predominated at 60%. The most popular listener age range was across 28-34 year olds. Ethics and Neurology streams were the most popular content and the most popular platform was Spotify. Discussion We have demonstrated the wide reach of GOSHPODS across 35 countries as a means to communicate education with listeners during the COVID-19 pandemic. The continued increase in listeners indicates a growing desire for educational materials in this format. The female predominance of our audience aligns with the current female predominance in the medical professions. Conclusion GOSHPODS have further enabled the GOSH Learning Academy to disseminate education globally and to a diverse audience. The next steps in progressing this project are to gain additional feedback on releases so as to continue to grow our audience and measure the effect on confidence in knowledge and application to clinical practice.
ABSTRACT
Objective The aim of the present study was to assess the burden of burnout in junior medical staff working across all surgical specialities at Great Ormond Street Hospital following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study in surgical junior doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital following relaxation of the COVID-19-related restrictions at the end of June 2020. Burnout was evaluated using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). This is a widely-used validated questionnaire, which evaluates burnout across three domains: emotional exhaustion depersonalisation and personal accomplishment. All responses were anonymised points (0-6) were awarded for each response and composite scores were generated using an online tool. The degree of burnout was classified as low medium or high for each of the three domains using standardised score ranges. Results A total of 25 surgical junior doctors were included in our study. The response rate was 48% and scores from 12 fully completed MBI-HSS were included in subsequent analysis. 10 of the responders (83%) reported high burnout levels in at least one domain and 6 (50%) across at least two domains. The main contributor to burnout was the lack of feeling of personal accomplishment that was found to be high in 67% medium in 25% and low in 8% of the responders. We also found significant levels of emotional exhaustion (high: 42%;medium 42%;low 17%) as well as depersonalisation (high: 42%;medium 42%;low 17%). Conclusions Our study confirms the significant burden of burnout among junior doctors working in surgical specialities at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. This could have detrimental effects on both doctor health and patient outcomes. Future work needs to focus on strategies to improve junior doctor wellbeing and prevent burnout.
ABSTRACT
Background The education of our healthcare professionals is key to the success and safety of the patient experience (Grafton- Clarke et al, 2021). Over the past two years the need to continue access to this education despite the restrictions of the global pandemic was paramount, to limit the impact on service delivery and patient care. Prior to the pandemic the majority of training at Great Ormond Street hospital was in-person, most of the digital learning produced was for mandatory training. In March 2020, with the world in lockdown and all non-essential education now online, the demand for accessible and inclusive learning was highlighted and in July 2021, a new Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), the GOSH Digital Education Network (DEN), was launched. Methods The DEN was launched at pace in July 2021. An intensive comms plan was implemented with regular Trustwide communications sent via screensavers, emails, social media, and live virtual drop-ins to encourage engagement. A critical evaluation of the DEN was undertaken 9 months post launch via two methods: 1. An online survey 2. Focus groups via Microsoft Teams Results The DEN was launched with 10 live courses, one year on there are 124 courses. In total there have been 2,937 people logging in to access the DEN. The online feedback survey found 100% of external users and 54.72% of internal users rated their experience using the DEN as 'Very positive' or 'Positive'. Conclusion Continuing access to education during a global pandemic was a key reason to launch the DEN at pace in July 2021 but online learning still plays a pivotal role in education and will continue to do so in the future. The shift to online learning amplified the need for robust systems to support the delivery as well as an ongoing programme of learning for the course leaders.
ABSTRACT
Introduction Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) Summer School aims to inspire medical students and junior doctors to follow a career in Paediatrics, especially given the low competition ratio in Paediatrics training applications in the last three years. This year we had to move the conference to a virtual environment due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Issues We needed to modify the program to be deliverable as a series of webinars. The Summer School's capacity was increased to 500 participants (Virtually) from 75 (face to face). We explored ways to maintain interactivity, keep engagement, and fulfill our aim to inspire with a much larger group within the virtual environment. Furthermore, we refined our program to reflect the current pandemic. Interventions To reduce digital fatigue, we changed the length of the conference from 2.5 long days to 4 short days. Each day consisted of 3 or 4 webinars and a career panel session. The career panel sessions focus on sharing the individual journey, which was met with great enthusiasm from the participants. We utilized multiple tools to facilitate the interaction with the participants and speakers: Slido (Q and A, poll and quiz), a conference App, social media, and the 'Raise Hand' tool within Zoom. Measurements The conference was well attended with zoom data showed 390, 282,305, and 324 along the four days. Slido showed a high level of engagement with a total of 1005 questions posted and 434 active participants. 344 completed the post-conference survey, 80% voted the conference being excellent, and 100% voted for the continuation of delivering the conference online next year. Lessons Learnt COVID-19 compelled us to run our conference digitally, however we have gained a great deal of experience in management, leadership, and education. We learned the necessity of making rapid decisions and flexible leadership to enable ourselves to deliver quality education during the pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Background Social Media is an accompanying staple to conferences but also allows attendees who are attending virtually to interact with the day. GOSH Summer School (GSS) is normally run as a face to face event but had to be moved to a virtual set up this year due to the impact of Covid-19. This forced our attendees to change the way they networked and interacted with the day and how we dispersed education to the attendees. Methods Two main accounts were used to document the day;Twitter: @GOSHPGME and Instagram: @pgme.education. Positive feedback, attendees 'set ups' and screenshots (in replace of taking photos) of the talks were shared. Attendees were encouraged to use the hashtag #GoshSummerSchool or send photos to GOSH PGME Instagram. Results The PGME Twitter account gained 155 followers and was mentioned 196 times. This resulted in 2351 profile visits to the account and overall, 56.1K impressions were made throughout GSS. On Instagram, 24 posts were made and gained 77 new followers. There was an average of 30.5 likes, 0.5 comments, 3.9 post sends, 5.9 post saves, 26.6 profile visits and 436 views per post. 50 posts per day were added to the story feature of Instagram mainly featuring attendee set ups and opinions of the talks given. During the GSS, a survey about which additional resources students use to gain knowledge in medicine, social medial received 48% votes. Discussion The engagement statistics and broad use of social media to compliment the GSS shows how it can be used to increase engagement on virtual conferences. The uptake of social media interaction shows the potential of the platform to enable increased engagement and sharing of medical education. This also enables the increase of long-distance attendees allowing GOSH to open medical education beyond London schools and even worldwide.
ABSTRACT
Background GOSH Summer School (GSS) is a conference for medical students and early career trainees. It has been run as a face-to-face event in the previous two years. COVID-19 outbreak challenged us to reformat the conference digitally. Methods The GSS was run over four days, and the programme had main themes on each day: General Paediatric, Surgery and Innovation, Global health and COVID, and Paediatric Sub-specialties. The conference was hosted as webinar/ Q&A sessions;questions were submitted via a digital platform with anonymous options. Participants were encouraged to interact via conference App. Results 60% of the registrations were medical students from year 4 and 5. 630 different users logged in to the conference, with an average of 300 participants per session compared to 50-75, in the previous two years. According to the daily polls, GSS was the first virtual conference for 59% of the participants since the pandemic;58% preferred to ask questions using an online written platform, 4% preferred to speak directly, and 38% chose both. About the most productive method to deliver education, 36% chose face-to-face sessions, 34% Webinars, and 22% felt these two methods were considered equal. 78% voted that our format of 30 minutes presentation with 15 minutes Q &A was 'about right.' 69% felt our current format of 4-5 hours per day of webinar time was considered the best option. About 227 participants joined the conference App. 346 participants completed the post-conference survey, and 100% voted to continue the online format for next year's conference. Discussion The online GSS was as successful as the previous face-to-face events. We have learned that digital platforms can efficiently deliver high-quality education, promote interaction and engagement with the participants, and reach a larger number of students.