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Asked by Naya on 24 Jul 2021.
Question: How do you stay up to date with health care advancements? do you ever find it hard to keep up?
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Laurence Quirk answered on 2 Jul 2021:
Hi Naya. Almost all roles in medicine, nursing, pharmacy etc have a requirement to maintain knowledge and skills in order to practice. So they might be expected to take part in training courses, conferences, refresh skills at different times or when things change. It means anyone in healthcare is almost always doing some kind of learning all the of the time.
In my job, I help colleagues organise learning around cardiology or cancer and they get an expert to present the latest research or treatments. I also have to organise training for staff on things like ear irrigation or immunisations/vaccinations so they can do the procedures safely and with latest guidance.
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Jamie Hynes answered on 2 Jul 2021:
Good question Naya.
As well as being a professional requirement to keep up-to-date, there is a sense of keeping up with your colleagues in making sure that your current skills and practice are at the level they should be. Every year GPs have to prove that they are doing this through an annual appraisal where we gather evidence of our learning through online courses, conferences or reading that proves that we are keeping up-to-date.
In previous years this had to be the equivalent of 50 hours per year although in the pandemic they have relaxed this number in order to make sure that we focused on our own well-being! -
James Waldron answered on 2 Jul 2021:
Hey Naya, Medicine moves really fast so it can be really hard to stay up to date with the latest knowledge. I only qualified 9 years ago but so much has changed even since then!
To keep up to date we go to training courses, read books and journals and I read a lot of things online!
The way I most like to keep up to date is to talk to my colleages and go to teaching sessions where you can discuss with other doctors, nurses and other members of the team. (Often this comes with pizza or other food so that’s nice as well!)
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Sonali Kinra answered on 4 Jul 2021:
Great question Naya. In addition to the great suggestion by my colleagues there are also brilliant podcasts that are produced regularly by lots of organisation and individuals. And i tend to match that with my running. So yesterday on my run i listened to podcast on how to manage flare up of a condition called Inflammatory bowel disease and few days before that on Acne etc. So there is a ton of information out there. There is also something called PUNs(patient unmet needs) and DENs(Doctor educational needs) that we do- patients are your best teachers.
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Adrian Taylor answered on 9 Jul 2021:
Reading about new innovation or ideas my fellow practice managers have done and then talking to them about it, never reinvent the wheel, but always look to improve it.
I also belong to a manager forum where people ask questions and others supply answers, amazing how shared knowledge is a great tool.
Lastly I ask my staff, especially my deputy to challenge me and feel free to say things need improving -
Karen Fearn answered on 13 Jul 2021:
There are A LOT of online learning sites for doctors and a lot of face 2 face study days you can attend There are weekly magazines with the latest research as well We talk to each other and share information we have learnt recently too which is helpful and you often research a difficult case online. NICE also publish very useful guidelines for most conditions with the latest thinking and you can refer to them when needed. The hardest time to keep up was at the beginning of the pandemic when things changed very rapidly and new guidelines were coming out every day – it was impossible to read them all!
It is definately a career where you keep on learning -
Anna Davis answered on 19 Jul 2021:
Really hard, you just have to focus on the areas you are particularly on and interested in. I tend to go down a rabbit warren when I’m finding things out.
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