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Is there a need for formal undergraduate patient handover training and could an educational workshop effectively provide this? A proof-of-concept study in a Scottish Medical School.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Poor communication between healthcare professionals is recognised as accounting for a significant proportion of adverse patient outcomes. In the UK, the General Medical Council emphasises effective handover (handoff) as an essential outcome for medical graduates. Despite this, a significant proportion of medical schools do not teach the skill. OBJECTIVES:This study had two aims: (1) demonstrate a need for formal handover training through assessing the pre-existing knowledge, skills and attitudes of medical students and (2) study the effectiveness of a pilot educational handover workshop on improving confidence and competence in structured handover skills. DESIGN:Students underwent an Objective Structured Clinical Examination style handover competency assessment before and after attending a handover workshop underpinned by educational theory. Participants also completed questionnaires before and after the workshop. The tool used to measure competency was developed through a modified Delphi process. SETTING:Medical education departments within National Health Service (NHS) Lanarkshire hospitals. PARTICIPANTS:Forty-two undergraduate medical students rotating through their medical and surgical placements within NHS Lanarkshire enrolled in the study. Forty-one students completed all aspects. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:Paired questionnaires, preworkshop and postworkshop, ascertained prior teaching and confidence in handover skills. The questionnaires also elicited the student's views on the importance of handover and the potential effects on patient safety. The assessment tool measured competency over 12 domains. RESULTS:Eighty-three per cent of participants reported no previous handover teaching. There was a significant improvement, p<0.0001, in confidence in delivering handovers after attending the workshop. Student performance in the handover competency assessment showed a significant improvement (p<0.05) in 10 out of the 12 measured handover competency domains. CONCLUSIONS:A simple, robust and reproducible intervention, underpinned by medical education theory, can significantly improve competence and confidence in medical handover. Further research is required to assess long-term outcomes as student's transition from undergraduate to postgraduate training.

SUBMITTER: Holt N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7045128 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Is there a need for formal undergraduate patient handover training and could an educational workshop effectively provide this? A proof-of-concept study in a Scottish Medical School.

Holt Nicholas N Crowe Kirsty K Lynagh Daniel D Hutcheson Zoe Z

BMJ open 20200212 2

<h4>Background</h4>Poor communication between healthcare professionals is recognised as accounting for a significant proportion of adverse patient outcomes. In the UK, the General Medical Council emphasises effective handover (handoff) as an essential outcome for medical graduates. Despite this, a significant proportion of medical schools do not teach the skill.<h4>Objectives</h4>This study had two aims: (1) demonstrate a need for formal handover training through assessing the pre-existing knowl ...[more]

PMID: 32051318

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Project description:BackgroundAim of this observational study with a three-month follow-up was to evaluate an educational concept for risk-oriented prevention applied by fifth-year undergraduate dental students.MethodsDental students from two clinical treatment courses of the last undergraduate year were included. The subjects were divided into two groups according to their assignment to the two clinical classes. Group A received a sequence of seminars, including the basics of a risk classification system (RCS) with the theoretical background and case studies in the context of preventive dentistry. Thereby, 1) a theoretical seminar (background, RCS, cases) and 2) the transfer of the RCS on a clinical patient case chosen by the student, and its presentation within a discussion round was applied. Group B served as a comparison group with students who did not receive any of teaching events in terms of RCS. The self-perceived knowledge and importance of RCS, as well as objective knowledge (qualitative questions), were assessed with a standardized questionnaire at baseline and after 3 months.ResultsOut of 90 students at baseline, 79 (group A: 39, group B: 40) were re-evaluated after 3 months. At this follow-up, Group A estimated their confidence in handling the medication (p = 0.02), the RCS (p < 0.01), and in identifying the risk of oral diseases (p = 0.02) higher than group B. Furthermore, group A felt it was more important to identify patients at risk (p = 0.02), the risk of complications (p = 0.02) and to apply an RCS (p = 0.03). At follow-up, group A exhibited more correct answers of qualitative questions than group B regarding risk of complications (p < 0.01) and bacteremia (p < 0.01). Group A felt more confident with at-risk patients and more competent concerning RCS than group B (p < 0.01).ConclusionThe concept for educating risk-oriented prevention increased the self-perceived skills and the knowledge of undergraduate dental students after 3 months within a clinical treatment course.

Project description:BackgroundWhile special educational needs (SEN) are increasingly recorded among schoolchildren, infant breastfeeding has been associated with reduced incidence of childhood physical and mental health problems. This study investigated relationships between infant feeding method and risk of all-cause and cause-specific SEN.Methods and findingsA population cohort of schoolchildren in Scotland was constructed by linking together health (maternity, birth, and health visitor records) and education (annual school pupil census) databases. Inclusion was restricted to singleton children, born in Scotland from 2004 onwards with available breastfeeding data and who attended local authority mainstream or special schools between 2009 and 2013. Generalised estimating equation models with a binomial distribution and logit link function investigated associations between infant feeding method at 6 to 8 weeks and all-cause and cause-specific SEN, adjusting for sociodemographic and maternity factors. Of 191,745 children meeting inclusion criteria, 126,907 (66.2%) were formula-fed, 48,473 (25.3%) exclusively breastfed, and 16,365 (8.5%) mixed-fed. Overall, 23,141 (12.1%) children required SEN. Compared with formula feeding, mixed feeding and exclusive breastfeeding, respectively, were associated with decreased all-cause SEN (OR 0.90, 95% CI [0.84,0.95], p < 0.001 and 0.78, [0.75,0.82], p < 0.001), and SEN attributed to learning disabilities (0.75, [0.65,0.87], p < 0.001 and 0.66, [0.59,0.74], p < 0.001), and learning difficulties (0.85, [0.77,0.94], p = 0.001 and 0.75, [0.70,0.81], p < 0.001). Compared with formula feeding, exclusively breastfed children had less communication problems (0.81, [0.74,0.88], p = 0.001), social-emotional-behavioural difficulties (0.77, [0.70,0.84], p = 0.001), sensory impairments (0.79, [0.65,0.95], p = 0.01), physical motor disabilities (0.78, [0.66,0.91], p = 0.002), and physical health conditions (0.74, [0.63,0.87], p = 0.01). There were no significant associations for mixed-fed children (communication problems (0.94, [0.83,1.06], p = 0.312), social-emotional-behavioural difficulties (0.96, [0.85,1.09], p = 0.541), sensory impairments (1.07, [0.84,1.37], p = 0.579), physical motor disabilities (0.97, [0.78,1.19], p = 0.754), and physical health conditions (0.93, [0.74,1.16], p = 0.504)). Feeding method was not significantly associated with mental health conditions (exclusive 0.58 [0.33,1.03], p = 0.061 and mixed 0.74 [0.36,1.53], p = 0.421) or autism (exclusive 0.88 [0.77,1.01], p = 0.074 and mixed 1.01 [0.84,1.22], p = 0.903). Our study was limited since only 6- to 8-week feeding method was available precluding differentiation between never-breastfed infants and those who stopped breastfeeding before 6 weeks. Additionally, we had no data on maternal and paternal factors such as education level, IQ, employment status, race/ethnicity, or mental and physical health.ConclusionsIn this study, we observed that both breastfeeding and mixed feeding at 6 to 8 weeks were associated with lower risk of all-cause SEN, and SEN attributed to learning disabilities and learning difficulty. Many women struggle to exclusively breastfeed for the full 6 months recommended by WHO; however, this study provides evidence that a shorter duration of nonexclusive breastfeeding could nonetheless be beneficial with regard to the development of SEN. Our findings augment the existing evidence base concerning the advantages of breastfeeding and reinforce the importance of breastfeeding education and support.

Project description:ObjectiveDespite years of research and the development of countless awareness campaigns, the number of deaths related to prescription opioid overdose is steadily rising. Often, naive patients undergoing trauma-related surgery are dispensed opioids while in the hospital, resulting in an escalation to long-term opioid misuses. We explored the impact of an educational intervention to modify perceptions of opioid needs at the bedside of trauma inpatients in post-surgery pain management.Materials and methodsTwenty-eight inpatients with acute post-surgical pain completed this proof-of-concept study adopting an educational intervention related to opioids and non-pharmacological strategies in the context of acute post-surgical pain. An education assessment survey was developed to measure pre- and post-education perceptions of opioid needs to manage pain. The survey statements encompassed the patient's perceived needs for opioids and other pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapeutics to manage acute pain. The primary outcome was the change in the patient's perceived need for opioids. The secondary (explorative) outcome was the change in Morphine Milligram Equivalents (MME) used on the day of the educational intervention while inpatients and prescribed at the time of the hospital discharge.ResultsAfter the educational intervention, patients reported less agreement with the statement, "I think a short course of opioids (less than 5 days) is safe." Moreover, less agreement on using opioids to manage trauma-related pain was positively associated with a significant reduction in opioids prescribed at discharge after the educational intervention. The educational intervention might have effectively helped to cope with acute trauma-related pain while adjusting potential unrealistic expectancies about pain management and, more in general, opioid-related needs.ConclusionThese findings suggest that trauma patients' expectations and understanding of the risks associated with the long-term use of opioids can be modified by a short educational intervention delivered by health providers during the hospitalization. Establishing realistic expectations in managing acute traumatic pain may empower patients with the necessary knowledge to minimize the potential of continuous long-term opioid use, opioid misuse, and the development of post-trauma opioid abuse and/or addiction.

Project description:Infant sociability is generally conceived in terms of dyadic capacities and behaviors. Recently, quantitative evidence has been published to support arguments that infants achieve a criterion for groupness: the capacity to interact simultaneously with two others. Such studies equate this capacity with alternating dyadic acts to the two other members of an interacting trio. Here we propose a stricter threefold criterion for infant groupness, of which the crux is whether the social behavior of an infant at time B is shown to be influenced by what two or more group-members were previously doing at time A. We test the viability of this conceptualization: (a) through its justification of the novel laboratory procedure of studying infant sociability in infant-peer quartets (rather than trios); and, (b) in an analysis of a pilot study of gaze-behavior recorded in 5-min interactions among two quartets of infants aged 6-9 months. We call this a 'proof of concept' because our aim is to show that infants are capable of groupness, when groupness is conceptualized in a supra-dyadic way-not that all infants will manifest it, nor that all conditions will produce it, nor that it is commonplace in infants' everyday lives. We found that both quartets did achieve the minimum criterion of groupness that we propose: mutual gaze predicting coordinated gaze (where two babies, A and B, are looking at each other, and B is then looked at by C, and sometimes D) more strongly than the reverse. There was a significant absence of 'parallel mutual gaze,' where the four babies pair off. We conclude that, under specific conditions, preverbal infants can manifest supra-dyadic groupness. Infants' capacities to exhibit groupness by 9 months of age, and the paucity of parallel mutual gaze in our data, run counter to the assumption that infant sociability, when in groups, is always generated by a dyadic program. Our conceptualization and demonstration of groupness in 8-month-olds thus opens a host of empirical, theoretical, and practical questions about the sociability and care of young babies.

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Is there a need for formal undergraduate patient handover training and could an educational workshop effectively provide this? A proof-of-concept study in a Scottish Medical School.

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Is there a need for formal undergraduate patient handover training and could an educational workshop effectively provide this? A proof-of-concept study in a Scottish Medical School.

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