Turning Out Of Program Research (Oopr) Experiences Into S'Oopr Experiences!

Introduction A significant proportion of trainees are interested in an out of program research (OOPR)1 to enhance their training and career prospects. 70% are discouraged from applying due to financial costs.2 High quality ward and outpatient based undergraduate training programs are challenging to design and deliver within the day to day working of gastroenterologists. Methods Our aim was to assess the impact of offering an out of program research trainee a uniquely designed role (education fellow) for one day a week to organise and deliver an additionally funded high quality undergraduate education program in our directorate. This offered an opportunity to improve the financial offerings to the trainee whilst improving and performance managing our training program. The latter was to be delivered through collaboration with the undergraduate education centre, individualising student timetables, formalising induction, organising supervised teaching events and integrating educational governance into the program. Results An education fellow role was funded via a business case for improving education in 2017 and was found to be attractive to a higher specialist trainee currently on an OOPR. Impact on the conduct of the main research project was felt to be insignificant and this has continued to be the case with adequate delivery of research project timelines and adequate annual progression reports from the academic supervisor. The education fellow post has been extremely well received. Feedback from 92 students (47%, 40% and 13% in yrs 2, 3 and 4 respectively) reported that 91.3% graded induction as high quality, 90% felt frequency of teaching was adequate, 98% were able to attend all or most of the supervised teaching sessions organised, 98.9% felt teaching sessions were good or excellent and most importantly 90.2% of students rated our placement ≥8/10. The fellow and the team have received a letter of commendation from the University. The OOPR trainee has applied for an additional qualification of Fellow of the Higher Education Authority thereby facilitating future roles in medical and gastroenterology education and in improving the trainee’s CV. Conclusions One day a week education fellow roles within OOPR are viable and offer a significant opportunity to reduce the negative financial impact of taking time out from training whilst significantly improving gastroenterology undergraduate training programs in hospital and offering an opportunity to achieve additional training qualifications. We hope this will serve to attract high quality trainees to the higher specialist gastroenterology training programs by laying an attractive gastroenterology foundation in undergraduate years and high quality trainees to OOPR placements. References Fogden, et al. Gut 2009;58(Suppl I):A155. Bhala, et al. Gut 2017;66:A50.