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
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has been followed by the shutting down of bars and liquor shops. This condition has led to the acute unavailability of alcohol, and subsequently increasing the number of cases of alcohol withdrawal. Objectives: This paper reports the clinical profile of cases of alcohol withdrawal presented to the psychiatry department following the non-availability of alcohol due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Methods: The patients were referred to the psychiatry department from the emergency medicine department and some of them directly to the psychiatry department. Thirty-two patients with alcohol use disorder and alcohol withdrawal were included in the study. The study data were collected using a semi-structured proforma and then were tabulated. The obtained data were assessed by the Chi-square test and unpaired t-test where appropriate. Results: The Mean±SD age of the study patients were 38.84±11.64 years. The Mean±SD years of consumption of alcohol was 13.50±7.8 years in the sample (range 1-30 years) and Mean±SD days of last consumption of alcohol was 3.88±1.8 days (range 2-10 days). There were no significant differences between stockers and non-stockers in various parameters. Conclusion: Alcohol and substance withdrawal have increased in the wake of the lockdown and COVID-19 pandemic and there is a need for non-COVID-19 setups to be created to cater to the needs of these patients.