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.

<div><b>Background</b></div><div>There may be a gap between what students learn during medical school and</div><div>their clinical responsibilities as first-year paediatric doctors. At undergraduate</div><div>level, in the United Kingdom (& Ireland), each medical school sets its own</div><div>graduating assessment and successful completion by the candidate leads to the</div><div>licensed right to practise by the Medical Council. It is therefore important to</div><div>define the standard for successful completion of medical school.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Aims</b></div><div>We sought to determine how current Irish undergraduate education prepares</div><div>doctors commencing clinical practice for the demands of the paediatric SHO</div><div>role. We identified 4 stakeholders in this process; The Irish Medical Council,</div><div>parents of paediatric patients, supervising consultant paediatricians and the</div><div>current paediatric SHOs themselves.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Methods</b></div><div>Using the Irish Medical Council’s Domains of Good Practice as a guideline, we</div><div>designed questionnaires to determine parental satisfaction with a paediatric</div><div>consultation from an SHO, consultant satisfaction with their SHOs performance</div><div>and SHOs perceived satisfaction of their undergraduate training in preparation of</div><div>working in paediatrics.</div><div>To obtain evidence of a consultant paediatricians expected standard of</div><div>knowledge, we asked consultants to contribute to an MCQ examination, with</div><div>questions pitched at a level which they felt every new entry paediatric trainee</div><div>should know as they start clinical paediatric work.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Results</b></div><div>We found that parents and consultants were both very satisfied with the</div><div>performance of the paediatric SHO. However, this was juxtaposed with the</div><div>opinions of the SHOs themselves as they expressed dissatisfaction with</div><div>particular areas of their training and felt that they were not adequately prepared</div><div>for certain aspects of their job.</div><div>The MCQ examination was taken by 366 RCSI students and 58 current</div><div>paediatric SHOs. The results show that, overall, the participants did not meet</div><div>the standard of knowledge expected by paediatricians. However, they did meet</div><div>the expectations of their academic faculty. We have identified particular aspects</div><div>of knowledge which could be improved upon but more broadly identified</div><div>suggestions for future development of paediatric teaching, in order to bridge this</div><div>gap between consultant-expected knowledge and graduating students’ current</div><div>knowledge of paediatrics.</div>