Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Simulation is an important part of medical training and allows for the training of doctors in a safe environment without the risk to patients. These ‘high-risk’ scenarios provide an opportunity for doctors to increase their confidence in managing clinical cases without detriment to patient safety while allowing them to make mistakes and gain clinical competence.

Aims: Simulation can also provide useful in diabetes and endocrinology (D&E) training. Many clinicians will encounter patients with diabetes but exposure to endocrinology scenarios may be variable. This means that trainees may not consider this as a career, due to lack of exposure. We aim to target resident doctors early in their training and to give them more opportunity to learn about D&E by simulation training. This may in turn promote more resident doctors to apply to this specialty.

Methods: A training day was held at Derriford Hospital, a teaching hospital in the Southwest of England. Small group teaching was directed at trainees considering a career in D&E who opted in for the training day. The day was then split up into simulation and actor training with micro-teach sessions, common referrals and clinic simulation. Feedback was then obtained from participants before and after the training day.

Results: Feedback included ratings of individual scenarios, confidence pre and post course and likelihood of applying to D&E. Overall feedback was positive throughout, with educational benefit rated as excellent for all scenarios. Confidence in managing these conditions increased from 3.2 to 4.6 and the likelihood of applying to this specialty increased from 4 to 4.4.

Conclusion: Simulation training is used across many areas of medicine. This is no different for diabetes and endocrinology and can increase confidence in managing these conditions as well as encourage trainees to pursue a career in this field.