Improving Burns and Plastic Surgery Induction Programmes: A Departmental Quality Improvement Project.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Quality Improvement

Background:

• Undergraduate medical curricula increasingly emphasize non-surgical skills, reducing surgical teaching time.
• Junior doctors, particularly senior house officers, require robust knowledge for managing plastic surgery emergencies.
• A gap exists in preparing new doctors for on-call duties in trauma and burns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance junior doctors' confidence in managing trauma and burns following induction.
• To improve junior doctors' satisfaction with the departmental induction program.
• To assess the effectiveness of a multi-stage induction process.

Main Methods:

• A Quality Improvement Project (QIP) utilized three Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles.
• Interventions included a handbook, structured trauma, and burns presentations with case discussions.
• Data collected via questionnaires assessed confidence, satisfaction, and knowledge retention (pre/post-induction tests).

Main Results:

• Overall satisfaction improved from 3.84/5 to 4.6/5.
• Confidence in trauma and burns on-calls increased significantly (e.g., trauma confidence from 1.83/5 to 3.6/5).
• Knowledge assessment scores improved substantially, with one cohort reaching 94.4% correct answers post-induction.

Conclusions:

• A comprehensive, multi-stage induction program is valuable for preparing junior doctors for plastic surgery.
• Improved confidence and knowledge contribute to delivering high-quality, safe patient care.
• While not fully preparing doctors, the induction significantly enhances readiness for specialized practice.