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Objectives Subspecialty applications within paediatrics is a competitive application process for senior trainees wanting to undergo subspecialty training in 18 different paediatric subspecialties. In the East Midlands, we currently provide opportunities within 6 of these subspecialties, however the success rate was disappointing. It has also been noted there is a decline with interview skills within paediatrics since the evolution of run through training. In order to support trainees, a quality improvement project was developed to understand the success rate with a plan to improve this using the quality improvement methodology. Methods Rates of subspecialty application success was used as a baseline. Using a serial 'Plan, Do, Study, Act' (PDSA) model the School of Paediatrics developed a suite of interventions to provide information and develop skills for local trainees wanting to undertake subspecialty training. The first intervention was a subspecialty careers day, aiming to allow local trainees to gather information about the specialty, the application process and tips on how to best succeed in writing their applications. The next PDSA cycle developed mock interviews for trainees offered an interview to further improve the success rate through developing interview skills. This was initially face-to-face and changed to virtual according to the changes due to COVID-19. Our current PDSA cycle is focusing on expanding the network of application reviewers and further developing the mock interview process. We have also introduced a regional subspecialty representative on the regional Education and Training Committee to be a point of contact for aspiring candidates. Results Baseline data identified a relatively low success rate. Modest improvements were noted in the first PDSA. The mock interview interventions demonstrated that around 80% of those participating were appointable for subspecialty training, showing further overall improvement. Conclusion Subspecialty application processes are challenging for any trainee, and we sought to improve local access to these opportunities through deanery-wide interventions to improve quality of applications and encourage access for those who might have struggled without regional support. Our current interventions have shown incremental success and we hope that our ongoing endeavours continue to improve subspecialty application success rates in the future.
Francis et al. (Tue,) studied this question.