Foundation Year 1 doctors’ experience and confidence in catheterisation: A multicentre survey

Abstract

Objective: This survey sought to review the experience gained by doctors during their first year of training and their confidence in performing this procedure. Materials and methods: All Foundation Year 1 doctors in three hospitals in Scotland were invited to complete an online survey towards the end of their first year of training. The survey asked participants about the number of catheterisations performed, confidence with this procedure and whether they had been signed off as competent. Results: In total, 149 doctors were invited to complete the questionnaire and 98 (65.8%) responded. At the time of survey completion, 97.9% and 93.6% of respondents were signed off as competent for male and female catheterisation respectively. A total of 55.7% had performed fewer than five catheterisations, 28.9% had performed 5–10 and 15.5% had performed more than 10. We found 25.8% were very confident about performing an average-difficulty catheterisation and 6.3% were very confident about performing an above-average difficulty catheterisation. Overall, 7.1% of respondents were very confident about changing a suprapubic catheter. Conclusion: Despite being deemed competent by the end of first year of training and meeting curriculum requirements, confidence levels in performing catheterisation remains low and many doctors do not have sufficient experience and confidence for daily practice. Level of evidence: 2c