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Anaesthetics

Key People:

  • College Tutor:

    Dr Dawn Harpham

  • Clinical Director :

    Dr Mansoor Sange

  • Rota Manager:

    Isabelle Salami

  • Medical Education Officer:

    Lea Worthington

The Department of Critical Care at Dartford & Gravesham NHS Trust provides training and educational opportunities, to enable knowledge and skills to be developed in line with curricula.

Education is valued by the department and trainees are supported by the multi-professional teams in six main theatres, three day care theatres, the Intensive Therapy Unit, the Obstetric Unit with two operating theatres, Emergencies in CT Scanner/Interventional Radiology, Pre-Operative Assessment, Acute Pain services and the Chronic Pain services delivered at both Darent Valley Hospital and Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup.

The Anaesthetic Curriculum is provided by the Royal College of Anaesthetists and can be found via Homepage | The Royal College of Anaesthetists (rcoa.ac.uk). It is taught using a structure of formal and informal teaching sessions in a clinical environment, or at weekly departmental teaching sessions (including morning Intensive Care sessions).

Anaesthetics Training at DGT

The Obstetrics unit had nearly 5500 deliveries last year and we offer intermediate and higher level modules for trainees. The unit is covered by Consultants and trainees during the daytime. We have a 10 bedded busy ITU, offering basic and intermediate modular ITU training. We also offer a chronic pain module for intermediate training.

We run a 3 Tier Rota system covering theatres, ITU and obstetrics.

Posts and Rotations

Core Anaesthetics Training

The Core trainees work on a rolling rota which is EWTD compliant. The rota consists of normal days, long days and nights. On a normal weekday, they would be either in theatres, ITU or in maternity. When on-call, the trainees on the Core rota would do the Acute pain rounds with a Consultant then they would be covering theatre emergencies on the CEPOD list. They would be supervised by a Consultant or other senior colleague. In the night, they are first on-call for theatres, cardiac arrest calls and other emergencies. They would get help from more senior trainees, Middle Grades and the Consultant on-call. When the CT1/2 trainees undergo their modular training in ITU, they will be on call for the ITU. This will enable them to complete their basic ITU training. They will also get modular training in Obstetrics, General Surgery, Urology, Trauma and Orthopaedics and Gynaecology.

Training is competency based and assessed in the form of CBDs, MiniCEXs, DOPS etc. You would be periodically assessed by your Educational Supervisor and supported to achieve basic and special skills as appropriate. The Educational Supervisor and College Tutor would also help you with setting and achieving your goals within the period you are with this department.

There are weekly half-day protected teaching sessions geared towards Primary and Final FRCA. This is mapped to the curriculum of the RCOA. Trainees are also encouraged to attend monthly audit meetings, as well as mandatory KSS Deanery Study Days.

Higher Specialty Registrar Training

We run a very effective Consultant supervised, exam oriented teaching programme that is based on Primary and Final curriculum. Trainees are encouraged to utilise in-house teaching as well as attend regional and away study days.

Darent Valley Hospital organises a Final FRCA course which is open to all trainees taking the exam but every effort is made to accommodate local trainees.

The Education Centre also run courses on a high fidelity simulator, including ALERT and ALS courses.

Teaching and e-portfolio

In this programme a variety of learning approaches are adopted. These include web-based, ward-based clinical teaching, exposure to outpatients at the appropriate identified level, group learning, private study, courses, reflective practice, audit projects, clinical meetings, journal clubs, grand rounds and regular teaching specific to grade and specialty.

Teaching

There is a variety of curricula centred teaching within the department including:

  • Consultant led departmental teaching each Thursday between 08:00 and 12:00hrs and ITU teaching on a variety of anaesthetic-related topics

  • Monthly half day Audit programme

  • Mortality and Morbidity meetings

  • Paediatric simulator days throughout the year in conjunction with PICU, Evelina Hospital

  • Simulation in situ training, in conjunction with South Thames Retrieval Service

e-Portfolio

Information on the e-Portfolio can be viewed via The Royal College of Anaesthetists website:

www.rcoa.ac.uk/e-portfolio

Local Faculty Group

The Local Faculty Group (LFG) consists of the college tutor, medical education department, clinical and educational supervisors and allied healthcare professionals in the department.

LFG meetings take place every 4 months at the end of each rotation. This allows for feedback from both training and non-training grade doctors, and the opportunity to review highlights and areas of improvement/concerns. Trainee teaching attendance and e-portfolio progress are also discussed, to identify any factors contributing to limited educational opportunities and any further support required. 

Following the LFG, feedback is presented to the Local Education Board (LEB) by each department for review. 

Related Items

Anaesthetics within HEKSS

To find out more about recruitment, policy & regional events please click on the link.

Royal Colleges of Anaesthetics

Click on the link for details of curriculum, e-portfolio, and assessments.

The Royal College of Anaesthetists website has detailed information on curricula, assessments and requirements for successful completion of training.

The Royal College of Anaesthetists website (www.rcoa.ac.uk)
ePortfolio for Anaesthetics: www.rcoa.ac.uk/e-portfolio

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