Endocrine Abstracts

An anonymised online survey was created to evaluate junior doctor’s competency and confidence with decision-making scenarios in managing patients with diabetes at the end-of-life. 26 doctors working at the Beacon Hospital completed the online survey. A structured education programme was then delivered to the junior doctors where the critical information pertaining to the management of diabetes at the end-of-life was discussed, based on the ABCD 2011 and Diabetes UK 2013 and 2018. Our sample consisted of 38.46% Interns, 38.46% Senior House Officers (SHOs) and 23.08% Registrars. The doctors worked across a number of different specialities with 11.54% were working in cardiology and oncology respectively, 15.38% working in general medicine, 26.92% working in general surgery and finally 34.62% working in other specialities. 52% of respondents stated that they were now “comfortable” in dealing with diabetes in the palliative care setting, compared to 20% before the educational intervention. Furthermore, the number of junior doctors who stated that they felt “very uncomfortable or completely out of their depth” decreased from 36% to 16%, following the educational intervention. In terms of assessing the knowledge and competence among junior doctors in managing these patients, the understanding that there is generally no set “acceptable” blood sugar reading in a patient with diabetes in their final days of life but rather the focus should be on “keeping the patient comfortable and asymptomatic” increased from 42.31% to 91.67% among junior doctors, following the educational intervention. Our study showed that there is a lack of confidence among junior doctors in managing diabetes care in patients at the end of life. Our study also showed that short, structured education programmes on the management of diabetes at the end of life can help improve junior doctor’s knowledge and competency in the area, as well as giving them more confidence.