ABSTRACT
Aims Engagement with members is an important issue for the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) and an area for ongoing development. This is an issue that extends to Psychiatry trainees and the Psychiatric Trainees’ Committee (PTC) has adopted increasing engagement as one of its key aims. Divisional representatives in different areas of the UK had noted that trainees had limited knowledge of the PTC or its roles and projects both within the College and local areas. To improve this it was decided to pilot a project that established a social media platform for trainees to improve communication between the PTC, it's representatives and trainees. It was decided that Workplace (a professional version of Facebook) would be used. This had already been established in the Severn Deanery. Method Northern Ireland (NI) and the East of England (EoE) deaneries were selected as pilot areas for the project. Preparation for the project included collaboration with trainees from the Severn deanery and meeting with the RCPsych Digital team. A scoping questionnaire was circulated to trainees in each deanery. Following this, two closed groups were initiated on Workplace in August 2019 for Northern Ireland and East of England trainees. Result Results from the survey sent prior to the social media pages being established indicated there was appetite among trainees for the project. The pages were established in July 2019. The pilot project was promoted by representatives. In the initial phases, approximately 40% of trainees signed up. Information regarding college and local events, committee meeting updates and training opportunities was disseminated on the platform. There was evidence of early use by trainees outside of the representative group. This however was not sustained and gradually use of the platform reduced over the pilot period, both in postings and membership. A further questionnaire circulated in July 2020 highlighted trainees’ concerns relating to the platform, including concerns around data protection and a high number of notifications associated with the Workplace medium. The ultimate impact on engagement was also felt to be minimal. Conclusion Following feedback and increasing usage costs by Workplace, it was decided not to continue with a nationwide role out of the project. COVID-19 has seen the successful use of platforms such as Microsoft Teams and these may be considered in the future, given their integration with existing trust systems.
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to (1) analyze blood viscosity, red blood cell (RBC) deformability, and aggregation in hospitalized patients with Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19); (2) test the associations between impaired blood rheology and blood coagulation; and (3) test the associations between impaired blood rheology and several indicators of clinical severity. A total of 172 patients with COVID-19, hospitalized in COVID-unit of the Internal Medicine Department (Lyon, France) participated in this study between January and May 2021. Clinical parameters were collected for each patient. Routine hematological/biochemical parameters, blood viscosity, RBC deformability and aggregation, and RBC senescence markers were measured on the first day of hospitalization. A control group of 38 healthy individuals was constituted to compare the blood rheological and RBC profile. Rotational thromboelastography was performed in 76 patients to study clot formation dynamics. Our study demonstrated that patients with COVID-19 had increased blood viscosity despite lower hematocrit than healthy individuals, as well as increased RBC aggregation. In-vitro experiments demonstrated a strong contribution of plasma fibrinogen in this RBC hyper-aggregation. RBC aggregation correlated positively with clot firmness, negatively with clot formation time, and positively with the length of hospitalization. Patients with oxygen supplementation had higher RBC aggregation and blood viscosity than those without, and patients with pulmonary lesions had higher RBC aggregation and enhanced coagulation than those without. This study is the first to demonstrate blood hyper-viscosity and RBC hyper-aggregation in a large cohort of patients with COVID-19 and describe associations with enhanced coagulation and clinical outcomes.