Night emergency cover for ENT in England: a national survey

Abstract

Night-time ENT care is often provided by junior doctors with little experience of the speciality, who are often also responsible for covering multiple specialities. Many reported not feeling comfortable managing common ENT emergencies. Structured induction programmes would help to provide basic knowledge and should be mandatory for all doctors covering ENT.

Validation of a new ENT emergencies course for first-on-call doctors

“…Out-of-hours first-on-call ENT cover is often provided by junior doctors with little ENT experience. A survey in 2009 reported that 68 per cent of respondents covering ENT had no previous experience, and 74 per cent of respondents were covering more than one specialty at night 1 . It is these doctors who are often the first to treat patients with ENT emergencies that may rapidly become life-threatening, requiring skilled and immediate management.…”

Development of an ENT undergraduate curriculum using a Delphi survey

“…75% of a cohort of accident and emergency staff stated that they had not received enough undergraduate ENT teaching . Several studies have also shown that GPs also feel that their undergraduate otolaryngology experience is inadequate . This lack of exposure to ENT could potentially lead to clinical problems because of a lack of basic ENT knowledge.…”

“…8 Several studies have also shown that GPs also feel that their undergraduate otolaryngology experience is inadequate. [9][10][11] This lack of exposure to ENT could potentially lead to clinical problems because of a lack of basic ENT knowledge. There is certainly evidence that a knowledge of ENT is important in certain non-ENT medical specialties including accident and emergency, 8 general practice and paediatrics.…”

Simulation-based ENT induction: validation of a novel mannequin training model

“…One study showed that 68 per cent of these doctors (across 91 hospitals in the UK) had no prior ENT experience, with 42 per cent not being comfortable in managing acute ENT conditions. 10…”