A study into the educational needs of children's hospice doctors: a descriptive quantitative and qualitative survey

Objectives: To identify and explore the educational needs of children's hospice doctors in England. Design: A descriptive quantitative and qualitative survey. Setting: Children's hospices in England. Participants: All children's hospice doctors (n = 55) in England were approached, and 35 (65%) consented. Interventions: A questionnaire designed to survey doctors' self-assessed educational competencies ( confidence and perceived need for training) in subject areas derived from analysis of existing children's palliative care literature. Educational diaries used prospectively in practice to identify areas of unmet educational need. Main outcome measures: Self-perceived confidence and usefulness scores for each subject area. An analysis of support, education and training needs deriving from educational diaries and one-to-one interviews. Results: Confidence and usefulness scores suggest that respondents would most value support, education and training in the management of emergencies, symptoms and physical disease. Educational diary analysis revealed that respondents would most value support, education and training in communication skills, team-working skills, and personal coping strategies. Conclusions: There is a disparity between educational needs as derived from self-rated competencies and from educational diary keeping; suggesting that children's hospice doctors may not be fully aware of their own educational, support and training needs. Self-rated competencies emphasise the value of education in craft or clinical skills; whereas personal diary keeping emphasises the value of education in intrapersonal and interpersonal skills such as communication, team-working and personal coping skills. The current curricula and educational resources need to acknowledge that interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies are as important as clinical competencies. While the study looks particularly at the educational needs of children's hospice doctors, readers may feel that the findings are of relevance to all specialities and disciplines.