Virtual induction for new doctors in a district general hospital

Abstract

Background: Staff induction is an opportunity and an obligation for organisations to welcome their new trainees and familiarise them with their new workplace. It is well known that UK trainees rotate regularly between hospitals during their career; we, therefore, believed that an online platform for virtual induction of trainees would aid traditional face-to-face induction. This novel virtual tour induction allows trainees to complete part of their induction at a time convenient for them, and familiarise themselves with their new workplace. Swerdlow and colleagues1 highlighted the advantages of screen-based simulation as ‘cost, availability, simplicity, repeatability and scorability’. Methods: For our virtual induction programme, we took 360 degree pictures and videos of our theatre complex. These videos included a complete tour of the theatre complex, the locations of key equipment such as the difficult airway trolley and familiarisation with anaesthetic equipment and the electronic medical record system used in our trust. We then created a website https://wsheducation.co.uk and uploaded these photos and videos on to our website. This link would be shared with all new trainees as part of their induction pack. Results: We sent out a survey of our virtual induction programme to 10 new trainees, seven of whom responded. All seven of them felt that the online virtual induction platform was user friendly, easy to access, and aided induction and familiarisation with the department. In addition, all seven trainees felt more confident with the use of equipment available in our hospital after watching these videos. Conclusion: We received very positive feedback for this novel method of induction and have shown that this high-fidelity induction programme could be used to help with familiarisation of the working environment for new trainees. The platform provides an easy and convenient form of induction and aids continuous reinforced learning through video-based material which could be used alongside face-to-face induction. 1)Swerdlow B, Soelberg J, Osborne-Smith L. Adv Med Educ Pract 2020; 11: 563–7