delphi
TERN April Update
Good morning everyone; time for a TERN April Update!
I just wanted to write a little post updating people on a few things that were going on.
CERA 1
The results of the first, acceleration phase of the CERA study has now been published. It can be found on the EMJ and if you're a collaborator and eager to see your name in lights - can be found here on PubMed. Please tweet and share about it! We'll be posting an infographic to boot.
CERA 4
The results from the fourth iteration of the study looking at the third wave of the pandemic this winter have come back from the R factory, and we will be getting them into a publishable form and will be releasing it to you all. Watch this space.
Delphi
The Delphi study is in full-swing, and we are now rounding out the second round of the questionnaire, attempting to produce a list of research priorities. This will come out and will then go on to identify research priorities for the network. Stay tuned!
SHED
We are going ahead for a September / October start for SHED; we will be releasing a survey next week asking people to tell us where they will be next year in order to start working out where we will be recruiting for the sites. Keep an eye out!
Educational Work
With our new Education leads, Raj & Celestine, we've started producing more educational / research-orientated content on our home on RCEMLearning. This includes two new features - TERN's Top Papers and the TERN Virtual Journal Club.
TERN's Top Papers
Trainees do not always have time to read the most recent papers. We want to help trainees stay abreast of the evidence base. We have started by producing a monthly summary of important articles. Teams of trainees from each region (with the assistance of the TERN Education Leads) will produce a summary each month. These will be comprised of a selection of the most important articles to trainees based around that month’s theme published from the past year.
This summary will be written by trainees for trainees. Participation will help EM trainees evidence the research specialty learning outcome (SLO10) and will help aspiring EM trainees demonstrate commitment to specialty. If you are interested in getting involved email us at tern.education@rcem.ac.uk with your name, grade, and deanery.
TERN Virtual Journal Club
Now, as you will likely know, the new curriculum has removed the critical appraisal exam, moving towards a portfolio-process. We at TERN are keen to introduce evidence-based practice into our everyday working practice. The previous college focus on critical appraisal (by way of making it an exit examination) has meant that this has become the step of evidence-based practice we focus on. The most crucial of the five steps of evidence-based practice, and the one the literature suggests is the most neglected, is the actual application of the evidence to the patient in front of us.
We are planning to meet a number of needs through creating the Virtual Journal Club. Practically, trainees can demonstrate engagement with the new curriculum (and the SLO10 research outcome) and develop skills at appraising the evidence. We want to centre the application of evidence to clinical practice to the forefront of everyone's mind. Too long we look at a guideline and follow it blindly - we want to go behind the evidence, behind the guidelines, and really get to know the evidence-base behind our practice.
Find our articles on RCEMLearning - we'll also have a section where they will be linked to on this website.
This has been your TERN April Update!
Thanks,
Rob
A SHED Update
SHED Update here.
Good morning everyone,
Many thanks, again, for all of the time and effort you have put into the Subarachnoid Haemorrhage in the Emergency Department (SHED) study. We have been delighted to see so much enthusiasm and engagement for this study, especially after delays due to the first peak of the pandemic.
However, this new viral variant and resultant third wave of COVID-19 is a further challenge to observational research. A new national lockdown has been enacted. Patients from Kent are being transferred to intensive care units in Devon for capacity. The urgent public health research prioritisation template has been recirculated and it is clear that any level 3 studies will receive little or no R&D support regarding set up, governance, oversight and recruitment.
As a consequence, we have discussed again with the sponsor to review delivery of the SHED study. Unfortunately, we all feel it will be difficult to proceed; the majority of sponsor R&D staff are working from home and are being prioritised to support urgent public health COVID-19 research. Your local R&D departments are likely facing similar challenges. Redeployment of nursing & clinical staff is happening, which will affect both research nurse support and clinical delivery of the study. It appears untenable to proceed at present and we remain concerned about the validity of the research within the current NHS pandemic setting.
We are therefore proposing a further deferral for SHED. We plan to defer until September 2021 for the earlier sites and October 2021 for the majority of sites.
We share your disappointment and can only apologise if rotational placement means you will now struggle to participate. However, we now have a 6-month opportunity to develop research opportunities at further sites, make the necessary amendments and ensure the protocol is deliverable in the context of any recent local changes. We have over 110 sites signed up, so chances are the ED you move to will already be involved. If it isn’t, let us know, and we can work with you to get local approvals set-up so you can hit the ground running.
It is a very difficult decision to have to do this, especially a second time, but we are certain this is the right thing to do. In addition to the above, we will be using the next 6 months to work on our website and consolidate & publish the outputs from recent TERN projects. We will also press ahead with the recently commenced Delphi project, as discussed at the December EMTA conference. You'll receive a SHED update confirming details regarding SHED nearer the time, and we'll work with you throughout.
The infrastructure and funding behind TERN provided by RCEM means that background work can continue and our administrative team can take the hit on paperwork, rather than this falling on the shoulders of enthusiastic individual researchers. This remains a big step forward for EM network research and should help us to deliver on the ideas you put forward, even if there are future hurdles to navigate.
For now, good luck, stay safe and get in touch if you have any queries.
Robert Hirst & Dan Horner
Merry Christmas from TERN
Good afternoon everyone,
It's been a long, tough year, for everyone. The global pandemic has tested us all and changed the fabric of society. Our behaviours have changed, our departments have changed, and our lives have changed. Most people will know someone who has sadly lost their life to this virus, or will have not seen someone they hold dear for many months now. The effects of the virus has highlighted inequality in our society, and we've seen it impact disproportionately on some more than others. The world (for the most part) feels like everything has been put on hold. The distribution of the first few vaccines holds some hope, but it'll be some time until we see anything approaching normal. The effects of this virus will last much longer than the time we remain locked-down for.
But, at this time of year, we can't help but look to the year ahead. A lot of research efforts have been diverted to COVID-19, and it has been really interesting seeing the scientific process in action. We've learnt so much about this virus, and despite the alarming news of a new viral variant, we know much more about treating this virus now. This has led to delays to other areas of research. We've had to delayed SHED twice now, and for the time being we aim to continue with SHED in February / March (depending upon your site). However, if anything changes you will of course hear about it from us.
In the meanwhile, we've received a number of applications for our new committee roles, who will help to expand TERN and the role it has in networking and education. We'll be introducing them in February once we've sifted through them and interviewed them.
Our Delphi process to investigate trainee research priorities continues. We have our participants, and will be distributing the initial questionnaire in the new year. We'll be posting about this and updating you as the process develops.
More imminently, we are hosting a session for the Trainees Research Engagement Day on the 14th January 2021. Our session will feature updates from Etimbuk Umana from Irish TERN on their National Emergency Resuscitation Airway Audit project, from Harriet Tucker from NATRIC on the TETRIS Project, and from me providing an update on TERN. It will be an excellent day and the programme is stuffed full of fantastic talks - you can check the programme here. It's £25 and will be an excellent day. Sign up here!