The Impact of Virtual Interviews on Recruitment in Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Training.

CONTEXT: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led many leaders to reassess how recruitment into the medical field is conducted. In Hospice and Palliative Medicine, many training programs are moving to virtual recruitment as a more permanent strategy. However, virtual recruitment disproportionately affects smaller training programs as well as those in smaller cities or those whose location is less well-known. OBJECTIVES: To assess faculty perspective regarding the value of virtual vs. face-to-face recruitment methods in a well-established program located in a mid-sized city that is lesser known than many comparable programs. METHODS: After virtual recruitment season in 2020, we assessed our faculty regarding the process of virtual interviews. Survey items were based on results of the 2020 NRMP Internal Medicine Program Director Survey to include the most highly cited factors used to rank internal medicine applicants. Faculty was asked whether virtual or face-to-face interviews were more effective and were asked to make an overall choice between face to face and virtual recruitment formats and to explain the reason behind their decision. RESULTS: Twenty-three faculty received the survey and 17 completed. Although more faculty felt that in-person interviews allowed for better ability to recruit the most qualified trainees than virtual interviews, nine out of the 17 faculty chose virtual as their preferred format. CONCLUSION: While acknowledging benefits that can only be achieved in-person, our faculty believe that virtual interviews for future Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellows is an effective and potentially advantageous way to recruit the future work force of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

Is cardiac resynchronisation therapy feasible, safe and beneficial in the very elderly?

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) implantation was feasible and safe in octogenarians and the association with symptoms. METHODS: Consecutive patients undergoing CRT implantation were recruited from two UK centers. Patients grouped according to age: < 80 & ≥ 80 years. Baseline demographics, complications and outcomes were compared between those groups. RESULTS: A total of 439 patients were included in this study, of whom 26% were aged ≥ 80 years. Octogenarians more often received cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemaker in comparison to cardiac resynchronisation therapy-defibrillator. Upgrade from pacemaker was common in both groups (16% < 80 years vs. 22% ≥ 80 years, P = NS). Co-morbidities were similarly common in both groups (overall diabetes: 25%, atrial fibrillation: 23%, hypertension: 45%). More patient age ≥ 80 years had significant chronic kidney disease (CKD, estimated glomerular filtration rate < 45 mL/min per 1.73 m(2), 44% vs. 22%, P < 0.01). Overall complication rates (any) were similar in both groups (16% vs. 17%, P = NS). Both groups demonstrated symptomatic benefit. One-year mortality rates were almost four fold greater in octogenarians as compared with the younger cohort (13.9% vs. 3.7%, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: CRT appears to be safe in the very elderly despite extensive co-morbidity, and in particular frequent severe CKD. Symptomatic improvement appears to be meaningful. Strategies to increase the appropriate identification of elderly patients with CHF who are potential candidates for CRT are required.

Medical problems presenting to paediatric emergency departments: 10 years on.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the common medical presenting problems of children attending a paediatric emergency department (ED) compared with 10 years previously. DESIGN: A retrospective review of electronic patient record and comparison with previous cohort. SETTING: A UK university hospital ED. PATIENTS: A cohort of children and young people aged 0-15 years who attended the ED between 7 February 2007 and 6 February 2008 (n=39 394) compared with a historical cohort from 10 years earlier. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES AND RESULTS: Information on presenting problem, demographic data and source of referral were collected. Presenting problems were ranked and comparisons made with previous data using the difference between proportions analysis and the significance test for a difference in two proportions. A total of 39 394 children (57% boys) were seen with 14 724 medical attendances compared with 10 369 attendances from the 1997 cohort, an increase of 42%. Most (85%) ED attendances can be accounted for by the 10 most common presenting problems, including breathing difficulty (2494, 20.1%), febrile illness (1752, 14.1%), diarrhoea with or without vomiting (1731, 14.0%), rash (1066, 8.6%) and cough (835, 6.7%). Similar proportions are described to a decade earlier; however, there were fewer patients attending with breathing difficulty (-10.9%, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Over a 10-year period, there has been a rise in the number of people attending the ED with medical conditions. The 10 most common presenting problems account for 85% of medical attendees. These results suggest the increasing utilisation of ED services for children with common medical presenting problems and should inform further research exploring the pathways for attendance and the thresholds in seeking medical advice in order to inform the commissioning of paediatric emergency and urgent care services.

The hidden curriculum: what can we learn from third-year medical student narrative reflections?

PURPOSE: To probe medical students' narrative essays as a rich source of data on the hidden curriculum, a powerful influence shaping the values, roles, and identity of medical trainees. METHOD: In 2008, the authors used grounded theory to conduct a thematic analysis of third-year Harvard Medical School students' reflection papers on the hidden curriculum. RESULTS: Four overarching concepts were apparent in almost all of the papers: medicine as culture (with distinct subcultures, rules, vocabulary, and customs); the importance of haphazard interactions to learning; role modeling; and the tension between real medicine and prior idealized notions. The authors identified nine discrete "core themes" and coded each paper with up to four core themes based on predominant content. Of the 30 students (91% of essay writers, 20% of class) who consented to the study, 50% focused on power-hierarchy issues in training and patient care; 30% described patient dehumanization; 27%, respectively, detailed some "hidden assessment" of their performance, discussed the suppression of normal emotional responses, mentioned struggling with the limits of medicine, and recognized personal emerging accountability in their medical training; 23% wrote about the elusive search for personal/professional balance and contemplated the sense of "faking it" as a young doctor; and 20% relayed experiences derived from the positive power of human connection. CONCLUSIONS: Students' reflections on the hidden curriculum are a rich resource for gaining a deeper understanding of how the hidden curriculum shapes medical trainees. Ultimately, medical educators may use these results to inform, revise, and humanize clinical medical education.

Characteristics of deaths in paediatric intensive care: a 10-year study.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the patient mortality over a 10-year period in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) including patient demographics, length of stay, cause and mode of death and to compare these findings with pre-existing literature from the western world. DESIGN: A retrospective chart review. SETTING: A UK tertiary PICU. PATIENTS: All children who died in the PICU over a 10-year period between 1 November 1997 and 31 October 2007 (n = 204). INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Data recorded for each patient included patient demographics, length of stay and cause of death according to the International Classification of Disease-10 classification, and mode of death. Mode of death was assigned for each patient by placement in one of four categories: (i) brain death (BD), (ii) managed withdrawal of life-sustaining medical therapy (MWLSMT), (iii) failed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and (iv) limitation of treatment (LT). Over the study period, findings showed a median length of stay of 2 days (IQR 0-5 days), with a mortality rate of 5%. The most common mode of death was MWLSMT (n = 112, 54.9%) and this was consistent across the 10-year period. Linear regression analysis demonstrated no significant change in trend over the 10 years in each of the modes of death; BD (p = 0.84), MWLSMT (p = 0.88), CPR (p = 0.35) and LT (p = 0.67). CONCLUSION: End-of-life care is an important facet of paediatric intensive nursing/medicine. Ten years on from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health publication 'Withholding or withdrawing life sustaining treatment in children: A framework for practice', this study found managed withdrawal of MWLSMT to be the most commonly practised mode of death in a tertiary PICU, and this was consistent over the study period.