6240 The PAPERS project: practical academic skills for paediatricians: evidence-based practice, research and service evaluation

Objectives Critical appraisal and evidence based medicine (EBM) are 'academic' skills that guide daily practice and drive improvements in patient care, and are thus essential components of the paediatric postgraduate curriculum.¹ ²Whilst assessed at multiple points in postgraduate training (eg Theory and Science (TAS) exam, Speciality Tenure Assessment for Readiness (START) and subspeciality interviews), there is little structured teaching available to trainees to support acquisition and maintenance of these key skills. The Academic Subgroup of the London School of Paediatrics (LSP) Trainees Committee aimed to improve trainees confidence and competence with critical appraisal and understanding of EBM through delivery of two interactive teaching sessions, focusing on study design, summary statistics and critical appraisal. Methods Sessions were timed to precede upcoming START assessments and TAS exams and advertised via LSP calendar, mailing lists and social media. Participation was open to trainees of any grade, but limited to 25 people. Academic Subgroup members, all academically active trainees, designed and delivered the sessions in an interactive and participatory format combining presentations and group work, routing teaching points in common clinical scenarios. Pre/post course questionnaires included 5-point Likert scales on confidence in critical appraisal and usefulness of the session, as well as optional free-text feedback. Results In total 51 paediatric trainees attended two sets of PAPERS sessions (February and September 2023). The latter set of sessions were oversubscribed with a waiting list. 90% (35/39) of attendees were ST6-ST8 registrars. Pre-session questionnaires demonstrated overall low confidence in critical appraisal with 93% (39/42) of trainees reporting feeling not confident, slightly or somewhat confident. Post-session feedback showed improvement, with 72% (33/46) indicating that they felt confident or very confident, as shown in Graph 1. 93.5% (43/46) of attendees scored the sessions 5/5 when asked how useful they found them. Further feedback was positive, including: 'finally 'got' odds ratios after all these years!', 'helped with fundamental unders tanding', 'really good explanation of difficult concepts', and 'good practice for GRID interviews'. Suggestions on improvements included: 'more sessions' and 'need a full day'. Conclusion There is a clear demand for teaching on critical appraisal and EBM amongst paediatric trainees. Trainees found PAPERS session s useful, and felt their confidence in critical appraisal improved. Sessions could be expanded to a study-leave approved (half) day course, covering more topics and aimed at all stages of training, not just mandatory exams or START. We believe that other training regions would benefit from implementing such a course. References Curriculum Paediatric Specialty Postgraduate Training RCPCH Paediatric training for excellence Progress+. Version 3. Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. August 2023. Available at: https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2023-07/ProgressPlus-curriculum.pdf [Accessed 30 Oct. 2023]. Core Syllabus for Paediatric Training RCPCH Paediatric training for excellence Progress+. Version 1. Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. August 2023 Available at: https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2023-10/ProgressPlus-Generic-Syllabus-Core-v1.pdf [Accessed 30 Oct. 2023].