How does undergraduate teaching prepare graduates for the paediatric SHO role? A study investigating how graduates of undergraduate training in Ireland meet stakeholder minimum accepted competencies (MAC) of knowledge and expectations of good practise as new paediatric SHO recruits.

BackgroundThere may be a gap between what students learn during medical school andtheir clinical responsibilities as first-year paediatric doctors. At undergraduatelevel, in the United Kingdom (& Ireland), each medical school sets its owngraduating assessment and successful completion by the candidate leads to thelicensed right to practise by the Medical Council. It is therefore important todefine the standard for successful completion of medical school.AimsWe sought to determine how current Irish undergraduate education preparesdoctors commencing clinical practice for the demands of the paediatric SHOrole. We identified 4 stakeholders in this process; The Irish Medical Council,parents of paediatric patients, supervising consultant paediatricians and thecurrent paediatric SHOs themselves.MethodsUsing the Irish Medical Council’s Domains of Good Practice as a guideline, wedesigned questionnaires to determine parental satisfaction with a paediatricconsultation from an SHO, consultant satisfaction with their SHOs performanceand SHOs perceived satisfaction of their undergraduate training in preparation ofworking in paediatrics.To obtain evidence of a consultant paediatricians expected standard ofknowledge, we asked consultants to contribute to an MCQ examination, withquestions pitched at a level which they felt every new entry paediatric traineeshould know as they start clinical paediatric work.ResultsWe found that parents and consultants were both very satisfied with theperformance of the paediatric SHO. However, this was juxtaposed with theopinions of the SHOs themselves as they expressed dissatisfaction withparticular areas of their training and felt that they were not adequately preparedfor certain aspects of their job.The MCQ examination was taken by 366 RCSI students and 58 currentpaediatric SHOs. The results show that, overall, the participants did not meetthe standard of knowledge expected by paediatricians. However, they did meetthe expectations of their academic faculty. We have identified particular aspectsof knowledge which could be improved upon but more broadly identifiedsuggestions for future development of paediatric teaching, in order to bridge thisgap between consultant-expected knowledge and graduating students’ currentknowledge of paediatrics.