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Pandemic: a need for reactive education in paediatrics
  1. Susan Wallace1,
  2. Heidi Makrinioti2,
  3. James Webbe1,
  4. Sarah Taylor1,
  5. Dougal Hargreaves3
  1. 1 West Middlesex University Hospital, Isleworth, London, UK
  2. 2 Paediatrics, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK
  3. 3 Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Susan Wallace, West Middlesex University Hospital, Middlesex TW7 6AF, UK; susanwallace1{at}nhs.net

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2020-320004

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    The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has brought many unfamiliar challenges to paediatrics. First, there has been a significant decrease in paediatric patient presentations to district general paediatric emergency departments by an incredible average of 50%.1 Conversely, the acuity of patients has changed with delayed presentations of unwell children, referred to as ‘late presenters’2 who often require escalation of management such as in diabetic ketoacidosis, and now an emergence of a new paediatric syndrome likely related to SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.3 For many paediatricians redeployment meant working in new teams, so simulation and team education was important alongside learning new clinical knowledge. When education becomes the reaction to rising unknown challenges, then the outcomes achieved for children are better.

    Setting up new reactive education programmes is challenging. Senior clinicians are often busy in management or planning roles and registrars in district general hospitals …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors The authors have equally conceived, implemented and contributed to the work.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.