Dr Fiona Donald wishes you all a very Happy New Year and hopes you were able to find some time to rest and recharge with friends and family over the the holidays.
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Here is the latest data from the CPD event-accreditation scheme. During 2022 we received more than 900 applications for CPD event accreditation. Around two-thirds of these gained the accreditation applied for without condition, although for the remainder this approval only became available when further information or clarification was provided.
We would like to use this Bulletin issue to present some data on the College’s CPD event-accreditation scheme over the previous 12 months.
Applications continue to be welcome from regional bodies and specialist societies and associations. Accredited events appear on the College website and in the Lifelong Learning Platform (LLP) – if you have attended an event aimed at a regional or national audience please always first check in the LLP if it has been approved. You will then be able to save duplication of effort by associating the event to your newly created CPD activity.
Welcome to the autumn edition of the Bulletin. As I write this, there is a sombre atmosphere as the funeral arrangements for Queen Elizabeth II proceed, and I want to take the opportunity to pay my respect to her and to her devotion to duty in this editorial. Although it was not unexpected, I was surprised how deeply her death affected me – I felt keenly what a historic moment the death of the longest-serving monarch in British history, and the second-longest in world history, was.
Welcome to the autumn edition of the Bulletin.
As I write this, there is a sombre atmosphere as the funeral arrangements for Queen Elizabeth II proceed, and I want to take the opportunity to pay my respect to her and to her devotion to duty in this editorial. Although it was not unexpected, I was surprised how deeply her death affected me – I felt keenly what a historic moment the death of the longest-serving monarch in British history, and the second-longest in world history, was.
This is also my last editorial as editor of the Bulletin as I take on the vice-president’s robe and hand the Bulletin role to one of my colleagues. It has been a pleasure, and I have very much enjoyed the challenge of curating, commissioning, and advising our authors. I am so proud of the achievement as we head towards a much better digital version of the Bulletin, and I particularly want to thank the publishing co-ordinators, Anamika and Mandie, for the support, encouragement, chasing and cajoling they have done. Without them the Bulletin would be a shadow of what it is.
Find out more about the other individuals who, through their roles within the College, work directly on behalf of anaesthetists in training.
In addition to the newly elected and co-opted anaesthetists in training on College Council there are a number of other individuals who, through their roles within the College, work directly on behalf of anaesthetists in training.
Dr Greig makes the case for clear and consistent terminology and why it's important.
Critical terms must be clearly and consistently used.
For example, UK law recognises protected titles; ‘general practitioner’, ‘registered nurse’, or ‘paramedic’ have specific meanings, and to use one carries legal weight. Interestingly ‘surgeon’ appears on the GMC’s list of legally protected titles, but ‘anaesthetist’ does not.
While meaning can appear clear from context, ambiguity creates risk. It need not be highly technical terminology to cause problems. Misunderstanding of ‘OK’ contributed to the 1977 Tenerife air disaster, where a tower controller probably intended ‘I acknowledge your request to take off’, but the flight commander understood ‘you are giving me clearance for take-off’. The Boeing 747 accelerated down the runway, and shortly thereafter collided with another aircraft.
Find out more about the three highest-scored abstracts from this year's annual poster competition. The submissions were judged at the College Tutors’ Meeting back in June.
At the recent College Tutors’ Meeting in June, the submissions for the annual poster competition were judged. The three highest-scored abstracts were selected for oral presentation at the meeting.
- Dr Amrit Dhadda, The Welsh School of Anaesthesia, was awarded first place.
- Dr April Lu, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Dr Charindri Wariyapola, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, came in joint second place.
Professor Edward R. Mariano and Dr Amit Pawa tell us why we should be engaging with social media and the opportunities offered to inform, educate and innovate.
This anonymous author gives their perspective on working with neurodiversity and the importance of building knowledge and raising awareness about neurodiversity in anaesthesia.
In a recent correspondence, I wrote: ‘So many ideas flying around in my head (ADHD). I need to pin them down, put them in order (ASD), and get started (ADHD inertia). I’m over the “I’m broken” phase and now feel that my mission before I finally retire is to help others realise they’re not broken either’.
Why? A Bulletin article entitled ‘Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI): what it means to the College’1 with no mention of neurodiversity! The College wants to ‘develop a dataset of the profile and diversity of their membership and workforce’, but without neurodiversity questions I feel excluded!
One in a hundred young people have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD); 10 per cent of these may become high-functioning adults.2 Between three and six per cent of children have attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), and for one in seven of these ADHD will continue into adulthood.3 Also, adults with ASD are more likely to have ADHD!2 Everyone has individual attributes and characteristics. Experience of autism is also unique; this is the power of neurodiversity. Some professions, for example aerospace, screen positively for autistic traits4 – methodical, attention to detail, ability to hyperfocus, pattern recognition, visual memory, and novel approaches to problem solving.
This article focuses on team working and the role of multidisciplinary team (MDT) training.
Mrs Shivalkar was a 78-year-old patient with debilitating co-morbidities, scheduled for elective revision hip-surgery at a stand-alone surgical unit without level-2 or level-3 care facilities. Intraoperatively, significant hypotension was poorly recognised and treated. By the time care was escalated, she had developed severe metabolic acidosis and multi-organ failure leading to her death.
The coroner issued a ‘Report to Prevent Future Deaths’ to the RCoA and the Royal College of Surgeons for action. From our review of the available information, the lessons to be learnt by our specialty were related broadly to risk assessment, remote-site working and team working. My previous article (Part 1) addressed the first two areas, while this follow-up article focuses on team working and the role of multidisciplinary team (MDT) training.
A pilot matching refugee doctors with UK-based anaesthetists, allowing trained doctors to acquire knowledge and experience from qualified UK doctors.
Authors:
- Alessandra Anzante, Employment Lead, RefuAid
- Dr Siân Jaggar, Cardiothoracic Anaesthestist, Royal Brompton Hospital
- Maria Burke, RCoA Global Partnerships Manager
World events have seen record numbers forcibly displaced from their homes – currently estimated at 103 million people.1 According to the Refugee Council, in the 3rd Quarter of 2022, 24,511 applications for asylum were made,2 an increase of 58.1% on the previous quarter. Government statistics tell us that in 2022 74,751 asylum applications were made (relating to 89,398 people).3
A study by Deloitte in 2017 surveying Syrian refugees in Europe4 found that 38% of respondents were university educated, but that despite this 82% were unemployed. It highlighted language as being one of the biggest barriers to re-entering employment, despite 63% of those surveyed wanting to continue their careers in the professions for which they had trained in their home countries. In the case of anaesthetics (and medicine as a whole), there are significant challenges for them in entering UK practice.