123 The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the transition from student to doctor in the United Kingdom: implementation of teaching programme

Aims The aim was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on final year medical students during a key period of transition into doctors. Cancellations of placements such as student assistantships severely disrupted this transition. Furthermore, a tailored teaching programme was implemented locally to aid the new doctors. Methods A nationwide survey to graduating doctors and a focus group at The Hillingdon Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (THH) were conducted to identify concerns. We explored the students’ impression of the disruptive effects fof COVID-19, and the subsequent consequences this had on their preparedness and confidence. Subsequent analysis of the identified areas formed the basis of a teaching programme with 6 main domains: practical skills, attending arrest calls, prescribing independently, making referrals, prioritising jobs and on-call shifts. Results 440 students across 32 UK medical schools responded to the survey. The impact of COVID-19 on OSCEs, written examinations, and student assistantships had significantly affected the students’ perception of preparedness in starting as doctors (respectively p=0.025; 0.008; 0.0005). In contrast, when measuring confidence, only changes to student assistantships had a significant effect (p=0.0005). Locally, 90% (n=9) did not have a student assistantship whilst only 50% (n=5) had shadowed on call shifts throughout the entirety of medical school. A pre- and post-teaching intervention questionnaire was performed. This showed an average increase of 26.4% in how participants scored their confidence and competencies post-intervention. Conclusions The transition after undergraduate training is a steep learning curve. It is clear that student assistantships designed specifically to aid the transition should be protected and enhanced. Finally, in addition to the mandatory training all trainees receive, the taught material during induction should be tailored more towards new doctors’ needs.