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Improving a Psychiatry Teaching Programme for Junior Doctors on Placement in a Mental Health Trust

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2023

Verity Williams ,
Tonye Ajiteru ,
Abigail Hussein ,
Rachel Daly ,
Lydia Fry ,
Luke Maczka ,
Angela Pendleton  and
Max Pickard
Verity Williams*
Affiliation:
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, Dartford, United Kingdom
Tonye Ajiteru
Affiliation:
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, Medway, United Kingdom
Abigail Hussein
Affiliation:
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, Aylesford, United Kingdom
Rachel Daly
Affiliation:
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, Dartford, United Kingdom
Lydia Fry
Affiliation:
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, Dartford, United Kingdom
Luke Maczka
Affiliation:
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, Dartford, United Kingdom
Angela Pendleton
Affiliation:
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, Dartford, United Kingdom
Max Pickard
Affiliation:
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, Thanet, United Kingdom
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

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Aims

Foundation Programme and GP trainees on psychiatry placement within Kent and Medway attend a teaching programme on core topics. The GP training and new Foundation Programme curricula require key mental health content to be covered. This quality improvement project (QIP) aimed to improve the delivery of mental health teaching to Foundation and GP trainees on psychiatry placement.

Methods

The existing teaching programme was fortnightly, full-day teaching, online via zoom. Drivers for change included: reduction in duplication of teaching; new curricula; changes to training patterns, including GP trainees moving to Integrated Training Posts (ITP); and promoting sustainability.

The project team included Medical Education team members, trainee representative and clinical staff involved in education. In the first QIP cycle between March and August 2022, a Medical Education Working Group reviewed teaching content for congruence with GP and Foundation curricula and to reduce duplication with other training settings. Medical education teams from other local mental health trusts were contacted to gather examples of best practice, and teachers and trainee supervisors were consulted. Qualitative trainee feedback for teaching between December 2020 and April 2022 was evaluated. Teaching delivery was revised to half a day fortnightly, and session length standardised to 75 minutes. After the new programme commenced in August 2022, a second QIP cycle evaluated trainee qualitative feedback and there was further engagement with teachers.

Results

First cycle trainee feedback revealed several themes: teaching was too long; content was useful, especially focus on primary care; presenters were engaging. Suggestions for improvements included using interactive teaching tools such as online polls or quizzes, increasing case-based teaching, and small group breakout sessions. Shortening the teaching day preserved clinical exposure, especially for ITP trainees. Online format reduces travel time and expense, promotes sustainability, and reduces impact on clinical experience. Second cycle trainee feedback identified some sessions could be shortened. Consultation with education teams from neighbouring acute trusts identified schedule overlap with other mandatory training, so teaching was condensed to one 75-minute session weekly. Delivering teaching more efficiently releases time for direct patient care.

Conclusion

We used a quality improvement approach to improve a teaching programme offered to GP and foundation trainees in Kent and Medway. Our outcome delivers an efficient teaching strategy, responding to trainee feedback, which meets curriculum objectives more efficiently, preserving time for direct patient care and to implement learning. Additional learning is the importance of liaison with medical education teams in acute trusts to optimise teaching.

Type
Rapid-Fire Presentations
Information
BJPsych Open , Volume 9 , Supplement S1: Abstracts from the RCPsych International Congress 2023, 10–13 July , July 2023 , pp. S11 - S12
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NC
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This does not need to be placed under each abstract, just each page is fine.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists

Footnotes

Abstracts were reviewed by the RCPsych Academic Faculty rather than by the standard BJPsych Open peer review process and should not be quoted as peer-reviewed by BJPsych Open in any subsequent publication.

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