Evaluating the Usefulness and Utility of a Webinar as a Platform to Educate Students on a Uk Clinical Academic Programme

Abstract

IntroductionAcademic medicine encompasses doctors who combine a clinical career with teaching, research and health management. 1 As par t of the Modernising Medical Careers initiative, in 2005, Professor Sir Mark Walport identifi ed that the pursuit of a clinical academic career was hindered by lack of a clear career structure, infl exibility and a shortage of posts. 2 Concerns have been raised that recruitment into academic medicine has been inadequate. There are fears of a lost generation of young clinical academics, 3 as numbers decline. 4 We have previously published on this matter as we believe that the notion of 'doctors as scholars' has been a neglected competence within medical education. 5 We have previously explored ways in which we can motivate medical students wishing to pursue clinical academia. 6 In order to combat this, a streamlined career structure was created, known as the Integrated Clinical Academic Pathway (Figure 1). 2 The fi rst step of this pathway is the academic sister to the foundation programme -the Academic Foundation Programme (AFP). The aim of the programme is to afford newly graduated doctors' time within their 2-year training programme to explore a branch of academia of their interest. The most common structure for this is a '4-month block' in the second year, giving junior doctors the opportunity to engage in research, teaching or management and even pursue further qualifi cations, such as diplomas. 2,7-9 However, in deaneries such as in Scotland, not all posts have dedicated academic time within the second foundation year. 9 In these programmes, clinical and academic training run parallel to one another. Competition for the AFP posts has increased over recent years. The average competition ratio for applicants to AFP posts hasBackground The Academic Foundation Programme (AFP) is the rst step of the UK's national integrated clinical academic pathway; however, the application process can be unclear. We evaluated webinars as a teaching medium to enhance knowledge and con dence of prospective applicants.Methods Medical students were invited to attend a free webinar. The webinar was designed by a former academic foundation trainee, outlining the UK integrated clinical academic pathway and how to apply to the AFP. An online questionnairebased cross-sectional study was conducted pre-and post-webinar. ResultsIn total, 118 out of 199 (59.3% response rate) attendees lled out the pre-webinar questionnaire, while 64 out of 199 attendees (32.2% response rate) lled out the post-webinar questionnaire. Of these 83.1% had never previously attended a medical education webinar, and 92.3% agreed webinars offer exibility and convenience, saving time and money on travel. Matched pre-and post-webinar data showed an increase in participants' knowledge (p < 0.0001) and con dence (p < 0.001).Conclusions This study has demonstrated the utility of a focused webinar in enhancing medical students' knowledge and con dence in AFP applications. Webinars are a rarely utilised yet highly acceptable way to engage ...

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