Peninsula Foundation School Welcome Event March 2021

Background

The Peninsula Foundation School organises an annual event to help applicants matched to the School make their individual job preferences. Due to the global Covid-19 Pandemic the 2021 Welcome Event was held on Monday 22nd March 2021 via a virtual webinar. A team from each location attended including Foundation Programme Directors, Foundation Programme Managers/Administrators and current Foundation trainees.

Content

• Presentations from current trainees in each of the 5 trusts in the Peninsula
• 10-minute question and answer sessions for each trust following their presentation

 

Objectives of the event

• Introduce the applicants to the locations in the Peninsula.
• Give the applicants the opportunity to hear from each locality, ask questions and gather information.
• Give the applicants the opportunity to hear from current trainees and ask questions about their experience.

 

Attendees were asked to complete an online evaluation form after the event.

Evaluation

184 people were matched to the School for programmes starting in August 2021. 87% (160) logged in to the event at some point during the afternoon. This is an increase on the previous year’s figure (2019) of 28% (53). 52% (83) of those who joined the online event completed an evaluation form, compared with 83% (44) in 2019.

For F1 2021, the school will be made up of 49 (27%) local graduates and 135 (73%) graduates from other medical schools.

Decision Making

Overall, 29% of the 83 students who completed an evaluation form made a different decision about their first choice preference because of the event. This included students who were initially decided but were undecided after the event.

 

Table 1 – Applicants’ preferences following the event

 

 

As shown in table 2, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust was the most popular locality before the event with 31% of delegates saying that this would be their first choice.  Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust was the next most popular choice of locality. After the event, Cornwall and  Torbay had gained students and Exeter, Plymouth and North Devon had lost students putting them as their first choice locality.

The number of students who were undecided this year (13%) before the event was lower than in 2019 (27%), and after the event the number of delegates who were undecided only increased from 11 (13%) to 12 (15%).

Table 2 – First choice trusts

 

 

Most useful aspects of the event

In general, attendees’ comments suggested they valued many different aspects of the event as a whole.

 The attendees found the following aspects of the day the most useful and important to them: 

• Information about each hospital and specific details e.g. job rotas, number of beds etc
• Hearing from current trainees and their experiences at each hospital
• The interactive Q&A session with each trust
• Information on the location, surrounding area and the lifestyle 

A selection of verbatim comments for ‘most useful aspects of the event. 

• Hearing from current foundation year doctors about their experience, allowed us to gain a proper insight into the hospital and jobs
• Really useful to have the presentations from each with general info and the Q&A function was excellent.
• I found the Q&A time very useful. I like that the most 'popular' questions were asked to the F1s.
• The extracurricular activities was useful to hear. I think that extracurricular activities etc will play a big part in my enjoyment of F1 - I think the job will be good too, but more or less the same wherever.
• So much it's hard to say - the social side, transport, the general feel of each hospital, the support you can get.
• I found it useful to hear about how some of the rotas work and what type of things we might be expected to do on some of the on calls. This has reassured me slightly about doing certain jobs.
• Getting a feel for the general work environment and ethos of each place. It was useful to hear the drawbacks about each place.
• Hearing the same info from each Trust makes for easy comparison.
• Being able to ask questions directly to F1s and F2s who were currently doing the jobs which provides invaluable information.
• Interactive Q&A was extremely helpful, especially with regard to Truro and Barnstaple- initially thought it would be very difficult to live in Barnstaple as it's very rural but the trainees were so enthusiastic and really sold it and now im really considering putting it higher. Also thanks so much for all the friendliness and the welcoming talks, the attitude was so lovely and has really increased my excitement for coming to work down in the south west, especially after having lived somewhere very different like London! 

Suggestions for improvement 

Attendees were asked if they thought there was anything that could be improved for similar events in the future. Their suggested changes include: 

• More information on specific jobs – rotas, job descriptions (10 people)
• Improve the technical platform so all trusts present in the same way (5 people)
• More time for the Q&A session (5 people)
• Have the opportunity to send questions in before the event (4 people)
• More standard slides for trusts including accommodation details, parking costs etc. (4 people) 

SharePoint site

Before the welcome event the Foundation School designed a SharePoint site which contained comparable data for all trusts. This included a hospital description, list of jobs available, sample job descriptions, rotas and pay information. Some trusts had also prepared videos of the hospital for the new cohort. The students were sent a link to the site when they were allocated to the school to give them time to read the information before the welcome event. 

The attendees were asked to rate the information provide on the site. 88% of attendees reported that they thought the information was good or excellent and 1 person rated it as poor. This was because they wanted to be able to see all job descriptions for each post in each trust. The chart below shows the ratings from the attendees. 

How did you find the SharePoint information site which was shared with you before the event? 

Attendees were asked if there was anything that would improve the site for future cohorts. 38 (46%) trainees would have liked to see job descriptions and rotas for all posts and not just a sample few. There were also comments regarding more information on accommodation – not just what is available at the hospital and more information on parking and local transport links.

First online event

Due to the global pandemic the Foundation School had to run the 2021 Welcome Event virtually. Attendees were asked how they would rate the event with 1 being poor and 5 being excellent.

 

 

The event wasn’t rated as 1 or 2 by any attendees and the majority (66%) rated the event as a 4. 

Future Events

Attendees were asked if they would have preferred to have attended the event as a face-to-face session for which they had to travel.

 

 

45% said they would not have preferred to attend a face-to-face session for which they had to travel. Reasons for this included: 

• No travel costs
• More convenient
• Too far awat to travel for a 3 hour event
• Less time commitment online
• Final exams  – wouldn’t have been able to taken the whole day out 

For those that said they would have preferred to attend a face-to-face event or would maybe attend the reasons were similar: 

• Would avoid technology problems
• Would be good to meet peers and potential new colleagues
• Chance to explore the area
• Have an informal discussion with trust reps
• Face to face is more personal – online feels tedious.
• Could a tour of the hospital be incorporated or videos from each trust?

 

The 2021 cohort is made up of 73% of students who graduated outside the Peninsula which could have an impact on this question. Local students could be happier to travel to attend the even face-to-face as the localities are relatively close and wouldn’t take too much time out of their day but students from further away might have a different opinion. 

Attendees were asked if they would recommend the event to other applicants in future years. 100% of attendees who completed the evaluation said yes, they would recommend the event.

 

Yes, exactly as it was provided for me	61 (73%)
Yes, with some changes	22 (27%)

 

The 27% who would recommend the event with some changes have suggested the following: 

• More emphasis on the jobs and less info on areas and activities.
• More balanced views – list of advantages and disadvantages
• Have small groups with F1s
• Send PowerPoints before event  and use the event for more of a Q&A session
• Run the event face to face
• Give attendees the opportunity to submit questions before the event
• More information on payscales and F3 opportunities
• Run the event face to face and have an online option or recording for those who can’t make it. 

 

Summary and Recommendations 

The Peninsula Foundation School held an online Welcome Event on Monday 22^nd March 2021 for those people matched to the School for F1 2021.  The aim of the event was to introduce the Foundation Programme and the individual localities within the Peninsula and give applicants the opportunity to ask questions and gather information to help with ranking post preferences for F1. 

160 of 184 (87%) people matched to the School logged into the event during the afternoon and 52% (83) of those who attended completed an online evaluation form. 100% of attendees completing the evaluation recommended the event. 

Overall, 29% of attendees who completed the evaluation made a different decision about their first choice preference because of the event. 12 (15%) students were undecided after the event which is less than the previous year (21, 48%).  5 of those who were undecided had come to the event with a definite choice but had been influenced by the day to look consider more than one trust. Cornwall was the most popular locality before and after the event. 

Students had access to a SharePoint site before the event which contained a lot of comparable data for each trust in the Peninsula. 88% of trainees rated the site as good or excellent. 38 (46%) trainees would have liked to see job descriptions and rotas for all posts on the site and not just a sample few. 

45% said they would not have preferred to attend a face-to-face session for which they had to travel. 26% said they would have preferred to attend a face to face event and the remaining 29% said they were not sure. 

Suggestions for improvement from attendees included:

• More information on specific jobs – rotas, job descriptions
• Improve the technical platform so all trusts present in the same way
• More time for the Q&A session
• Have the opportunity to send questions in before the event
• More standard slides for trusts including accommodation details, parking costs etc.
• More balanced views – list of advantages and disadvantages
• Have small groups with F1s
• Run the event face to face and have an online option or recording for those who can’t make it.
• Include a tour of the hospital from each trust

 The foundation school will need to meet with the trust representatives to discuss the suggested changes and the possibility of implementing them for future events. 

The attendees rated the event on a scale of 1-5 and 88% rated it as a 4 or 5. This was the first time the school had run the event online and there were some technical issues with the platform used which were caused by the licences held by the trust representatives. As the number of attendees for the online event was significantly more than face to face events the school will have to look into other platforms or different ways of using the same one (all presenters could be in the same location). 

Overall, this a very positive repot and is clear that the attendees really value the opportunity to gather more information on each trust and talk to current trainees before making their preferences.

 

Natalie Band

Foundation School Administrator

May 2021

This page was last updated August 26th 2021 (3 years ago)