Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Electrolyte disturbances are common in the hospital setting, often identified and managed initially by Foundation Doctors. Whilst some electrolyte disturbances are relatively straightforward to treat, Foundation Doctors can find the hyponatraemia more challenging. To address this, our trust’s medical education department developed an interactive teaching session focussing on hyponatraemia, utilising gamification methods to maximise impact on clinical reasoning and decision-making skills.

Methods: A forty-five minute near-peer session was delivered by Clinical Teaching Fellows to 47 Foundation Year 2 Doctors (group size 8-12). It comprised of an introductory presentation on electrolyte disturbance, a ‘Hyponatraemia Escape Room’ where attendees completed a series of tasks to recognise and manage a patient in Addisonian crisis, concluded by facilitated group discussion. The escape room challenged the participants’ knowledge of identifying true hyponatraemia, assessing the severity of hyponatraemia, assessing a hyponatraemic patients fluid status and correlating it to differential diagnoses, interpreting serum and urine osmolality and sodium levels, and treating an underlying cause. Participants completed anonymised pre- and post-session questionnaires, collecting mixed-methods data.

Outcome: Attendee-assessed confidence in diagnosis of hyponatraemia increased from a pre-session rating of 2.74/5 to 4.09/5 post-session. Confidence in management increased from 4.09/5 to 4.13/5. Following the session, 96% of attendees felt they knew how to differentiate severity of hyponatraemia, 98% knew how to investigate hyponatraemia, and 91% knew how to manage different types of hyponatraemia. All the participants found the session helped to develop teamworking skills. Feedback demonstrated the novel format provided an opportunity to consolidate and apply knowledge of a challenging topic in a fun, interactive way.

Take Home Messages: Gamifying hyponatraemia teaching using an escape room improved doctors’ confidence in its diagnosis and management. The escape room format encouraged teamworking, peer-learning and communication skills, through an innovative teaching session.