The problem

Staff changeover is stressful and a source of significant anxiety for rotating clinicians and the wider team; paediatric rotations can be particularly unfamiliar.1–5 Departments take steps to mitigate this and to prepare staff for their role, by providing an induction programme. Induction may include oral presentations, written information, tours and practical sessions to address common areas of confusion and orientate newcomers. However, inductions vary, and their impact may be transient given unfamiliarity and stress hinder learning new information and the volume of information required is likely to be too great to be easily absorbed.6

Aims

To improve induction for junior doctors and nurse practitioners in a general paediatrics department at a tertiary London hospital (approximately eight new juniors per rotation); and to maintain clinical and departmental confidence over changeovers with a digital guide and ‘buddy scheme’.

Making a case for change

Prior to our quality improvement project, we collected baseline data from new starters (n=5) and identified five areas they felt underconfident in despite the formal induction process. These areas were: working pattern, own role, role of the team, timetable and clinical knowledge. Respondents felt underconfident in these five parameters, which highlight the need for additional support.

Studies demonstrate that guides are highly useful for new starters.6 As inductions are typically in-person and transient, a digital guide complements this process by providing information at any time and …