Improving Outpatient Clinic Experience for Core Medical Trainees

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Internal Medicine Training
• Outpatient Services

Background:

• Core medical training mandates significant outpatient clinic attendance (minimum 24 clinics over two years).
• Trainees frequently face challenges meeting these requirements due to competing ward duties and service demands.
• Baseline data revealed low clinic attendance rates, with only 13% meeting the minimum requirement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To improve outpatient clinic attendance for core medical trainees.
• To enable trainees to meet their essential curriculum requirements for clinic exposure.
• To identify and implement effective interventions for increasing clinic attendance.

Main Methods:

• A project was initiated to increase mean clinic attendance from 0.5 to 1 clinic per month.
• Initial interventions included distributing updated clinic timetables and encouraging consultant invitations.
• A subsequent intervention involved implementing a system of pre-allocating protected clinic time for trainees.

Main Results:

• Initial interventions, including a clinic booking system, were unsuccessful in improving attendance.
• The revised strategy of pre-allocating protected clinic time led to a significant increase in attendance figures.
• Clinic attendance exceeded the targeted goal, with trainees now allocated clinic days for the remainder of the year.

Conclusions:

• Pre-allocating protected clinic time is an effective strategy for increasing core medical trainee attendance.
• The successful intervention model, developed using Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles, is sustainable and transferable to other hospital trusts.
• This approach ensures trainees can meet their outpatient clinic experience requirements, enhancing their training.