585 Life doesn’t stop teaching...No stopping learning!

<h3>Background</h3> Since 23/03/2020, at a time of social isolation, uncertainties, crisis in service provision due to Covid-19 Pandemic causing great disruptions, Departmental teaching programme, running 4–5 times per week, was at a halt until unknown period. This meant no teaching for trainees through the teaching programmes, less connectivity between team members, low morale within the team. <h3>Objectives</h3> After a gap of 5 weeks, main objecting of starting once a week remote teaching on 30/04/2020, was to reinstate teaching and training opportunities in a safe and enjoyable manner and also boost team morale by ‘staying connected with each other’. <h3>Methods</h3> PDSA included: Gaining agreement from stakeholders in the Department. Selecting a secure portal to run the teaching sessions remotely. We chose a portal that Trust was already using or higher management meetings. Testing the portal one to one and then sharing the information with rest of the team. Creating a teaching and training ‘chat group’ on the same secure portal for ease of communication. Delivering first lecture by Organiser to ‘break the ice’ since technology was new to many. Modifying the existing teaching rota to roster most trainees and including MDT sessions such safeguarding peer-review meetings, etc Organiser helping with a trial run for a few minutes before the actual teaching session to avoid last minute issues or delay. Constant development based on feedback from each teaching session until it became a ‘norm’ within the department by 6 weeks. <h3>Results</h3> Improved morale within the team. Some of the verbal and written feedback included ‘it gave a sense of togetherness’, ‘positivity’, ‘enthusiasm’, ‘something to look forward to every week’. ‘more interesting than face to face’, ‘less daunting’, ‘thoroughly enjoying’. Variation in attendance pre-covid (9–22) minimised to fairly constant attendance (15–22). Number of trainees attending without obligation when off work varied from 1–4 during each session. Those working in low risk areas or shielding completely, participates and attended more enthusiastically. After six weeks, from 16/06/2020, frequency of teaching programme increased to two times a week. Additional unexpected benefits were: A trainee on maternity leave joined in remotely with a month old baby in her hand and she continued to do so afterwards until return to work. A Greatix project was launched successfully for the department, without any undue delays waiting for face to face sessions. Sharing of teaching material or feedback was almost instant after the teachings through the chat group whereas with face to face this wasn’t a regular practice. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Remote teaching has a lot of potential to be part of our regular educational programmes, even when the current Pandemic is over. It can be an established way of ‘keeping in touch’ days for trainees away on maternity leaves or away from clinical area for any other reasons. Consideration should be given to regular National remote teachings through Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health so trainees mentioned above can stay connected with each other and benefit from remaining updated with clinical knowledge until their return to work.