2 results
Understanding Trainees’ Current Likelihood of Raising Concerns
- Vicki Ibbett, Manjinder Padda, Katie Thomas, Rajendra Harsh, Sian Davies, Tabassum Mirza, Katherine Hubbard, Ainy Gul, Khadija Kulman, Marium Fatima, Amy Shaw, Ella Kulman, Razan Saeed, Shay-Anne Pantall, Ruth Scally
-
- Journal:
- BJPsych Open / Volume 9 / Issue S1 / July 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 07 July 2023, p. S96
-
- Article
-
- You have access Access
- Open access
- Export citation
-
Aims
Raising concerns is a duty for all doctors. However, a scoping exercise within a large mental health Trust demonstrated that trainees experience difficulties in raising both patient safety and training concerns. As part of a trainee-led quality improvement (QI) project within this Trust, our aim was to develop a pulse survey to capture the current likelihood of trainees raising concerns and factors influencing this.
MethodsAn online survey was developed using ‘plan do study act’ (PDSA) methodology. The initial draft was informed by data from the Autumn 2021 scoping exercise. The survey was refined using a collaborative trainee-led approach. It was tested by trainees involved in the QI project followed by two other trainees and was revised accordingly.
Trainees across all training grades were invited to complete the survey through various communication channels. The pulse survey will be repeated monthly with a two-week response window.
ResultsTen trainees out of 103 responded to the first pulse survey open from 18th to 31st January 2023 (response rate 9.7%). Seven respondents were core trainees and three were higher trainees.
Respondents were more likely to raise patient safety concerns than training concerns (average score of 3.8 out of 5, where 5 equals ‘very likely’, versus 3.4 out of 5 respectively). Of the three respondents who had experienced a patient safety concern in the past 2 weeks, only two had used any existing process to raise it. These data were replicated for training concerns.
No respondents were confident that effective action would be taken if they raised a training concern, while less than half of respondents were confident that effective action would be taken if it were a patient safety concern.
The reasons for the low response rate are likely varied. However, there may be some similar underlying reasons for low engagement in surveys and low engagement in raising concerns. Given this, a more negative picture of trainees’ likelihood of raising concerns may have been portrayed if more trainees engaged in the survey.
ConclusionEngaging trainees to provide insight into their likelihood of raising concerns is challenging. Despite the low response rate, this initial pulse survey demonstrated that trainees continue to experience barriers to raising concerns. PDSA methodology will continue to be used to optimise the monthly pulse survey response rate. The key QI outcome measures will also be integrated into pre and post intervention surveys as a pragmatic approach to evaluate specific change ideas.
Effect of steroids on inflammatory markers and clinical parameters in congenital open heart surgery: a randomised controlled trial
- Muhammad M. Amanullah, Mohammad Hamid, Hashim M. Hanif, Marium Muzaffar, Maria T. Siddiqui, Fatima Adhi, Khabir Ahmad, Shahjahan Khan, Zahra Hasan
-
- Journal:
- Cardiology in the Young / Volume 26 / Issue 3 / March 2016
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 28 April 2015, pp. 506-515
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Background
Cardiopulmonary bypass is associated with systemic inflammatory response. Steroids suppress this response, although the therapeutic evidence remains controversial. We hypothesised that intravenous steroids in children undergoing open-heart surgery would decrease inflammation leading to better early post-operative outcomes. We conducted a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the trends in the levels of immunomodulators and their effects on clinical parameters.
ObjectiveTo assess the effects of intravenous steroids on early post-operative inflammatory markers and clinical parameters in children undergoing open-heart surgery.
Materials and methodsA randomised controlled trial involving 152 patients, from one month up to 18 years of age, who underwent open-heart surgery for congenital heart disease from April 2010–2012 was carried out. Patients were randomised and administered either three scheduled intravenous pulse doses of dexamethasone (1 mg/kg) or placebo. Blood samples were drawn at four time intervals and serum levels of inflammatory cytokines – Interleukin-6, 8, 10, 18, and tumour necrosis factor-alpha – were measured. Clinical parameters were also assessed.
ResultsBlood cytokine levels were compared between the dexamethasone (n=65) and placebo (n=64) groups. Interleukin-6 levels were lower at 6 and 24 hours post-operatively (p<0.001), and Interleukin-10 levels were higher 6 hours post-operatively (p<0.001) in the steroid group. Interleukin-8, 18, and tumour necrosis factor-alpha levels did not differ between the groups at any time intervals. The clinical parameters were similar in both the groups.
ConclusionDexamethasone caused quantitative suppression of Interleukin-6 and increased Interleukin-10 activation, contributing to reduced immunopathology, but it did not translate into clinical benefit in the short term.