Improving a Psychiatry Teaching Programme for Junior Doctors on Placement in a Mental Health Trust

AIMS: Foundation Programme and GP trainees on psychiatry placement within Kent and Medway attend a teaching programme on core topics. The GP training and new Foundation Programme curricula require key mental health content to be covered. This quality improvement project (QIP) aimed to improve the delivery of mental health teaching to Foundation and GP trainees on psychiatry placement. METHODS: The existing teaching programme was fortnightly, full-day teaching, online via zoom. Drivers for change included: reduction in duplication of teaching; new curricula; changes to training patterns, including GP trainees moving to Integrated Training Posts (ITP); and promoting sustainability. The project team included Medical Education team members, trainee representative and clinical staff involved in education. In the first QIP cycle between March and August 2022, a Medical Education Working Group reviewed teaching content for congruence with GP and Foundation curricula and to reduce duplication with other training settings. Medical education teams from other local mental health trusts were contacted to gather examples of best practice, and teachers and trainee supervisors were consulted. Qualitative trainee feedback for teaching between December 2020 and April 2022 was evaluated. Teaching delivery was revised to half a day fortnightly, and session length standardised to 75 minutes. After the new programme commenced in August 2022, a second QIP cycle evaluated trainee qualitative feedback and there was further engagement with teachers. RESULTS: First cycle trainee feedback revealed several themes: teaching was too long; content was useful, especially focus on primary care; presenters were engaging. Suggestions for improvements included using interactive teaching tools such as online polls or quizzes, increasing case-based teaching, and small group breakout sessions. Shortening the teaching day preserved clinical exposure, especially for ITP trainees. Online format reduces travel time and expense, promotes sustainability, and reduces impact on clinical experience. Second cycle trainee feedback identified some sessions could be shortened. Consultation with education teams from neighbouring acute trusts identified schedule overlap with other mandatory training, so teaching was condensed to one 75-minute session weekly. Delivering teaching more efficiently releases time for direct patient care. CONCLUSION: We used a quality improvement approach to improve a teaching programme offered to GP and foundation trainees in Kent and Medway. Our outcome delivers an efficient teaching strategy, responding to trainee feedback, which meets curriculum objectives more efficiently, preserving time for direct patient care and to implement learning. Additional learning is the importance of liaison with medical education teams in acute trusts to optimise teaching.