'Association of Anaesthetists Year in Review 2019'
Taken from the December 2019 edition of Anaesthesia News and available to non-members for a limited time...
Our vision and brand
To be a voice for the specialty
Our vision is to be an effective voice for the specialty, a leading
contributor to health policy affecting anaesthesia, and a leader
in raising public awareness and understanding of the role of
the anaesthetist.
Following the exciting launch of our brand last year, we went
live with our re-branded website this year – offering improved
navigation and more pages dedicated to popular subject
areas.
Providing leadership and advocacy for safety in anaesthesia
Fight Fatigue Campaign
Our newly established Advocacy and Campaigns team is helping
us to build wide support for our Fight Fatigue Campaign which is
fast becoming an agenda item for politicians and governments.
Seven medical Royal Colleges have joined 11 healthcare
organisations and a range of politicians from throughout the UK
(alongside official backing by the Labour, Scottish Conservatives
and Scottish Green parties) in making a commitment to
promoting positive attitudes towards rest and wellbeing across
the NHS workforce, and to help reduce the stigma attached to
talking about fatigue.
Our recent survey revealed the extent and impact of fatigue on hospital consultants, telling us that more than 90% of consultants who responded to the survey experience work-related fatigue, and 50% of them reported this had a moderate or severe impact on their health, wellbeing, work and home life. These findings, echoing similar results from our earlier survey of trainees, gained attention from the national media, helping to raise awareness and continue the conversation about this ongoing issue. We will be publishing the results of the SAS members in the new year.
Our recent survey revealed the extent and impact of fatigue on
hospital consultants, telling us that more than 90% of consultants
who responded to the survey experience work-related fatigue,
and 50% of them reported this had a moderate or severe impact
on their health, wellbeing, work and home life. These findings,
echoing similar results from our earlier survey of trainees, gained
attention from the national media, helping to raise awareness
and continue the conversation about this ongoing issue. We will
be publishing the results of the SAS members in the new year.
Suicide awareness
Our survey, published in November’s issue of Anaesthesia, highlighted the
experience of almost 1,400 anaesthetists who have lost a colleague through
suicide whilst working in the same department. The survey found a need for
improved mental health guidance and support for anaesthetists following
a co-worker’s suicide. As part of our role to offer wellbeing and support
services to anaesthetists, new guidelines on this topic ‘Guidelines on suicide
amongst anaesthetists’ were published in November.
Other highlights include:
Highlighting issues around bullying and undermining behaviour,
including working with more than 20 organisations as part of an antibullying alliance.
Responding to political events via consultations, briefings and position
statements on subjects including the NHS Long Term Plan, the Interim
People Plan and NHS Pensions (consultations and debates).
Other highlights include:
Highlighting issues around bullying and undermining behaviour,
including working with more than 20 organisations as part of an antibullying alliance.
Responding to political events via consultations, briefings and position
statements on subjects including the NHS Long Term Plan, the Interim
People Plan and NHS Pensions (consultations and debates).
Membership
Our vision within our Long-term strategy is to be the
professional membership organisation of choice for all
anaesthetists by providing high quality and high value member
services at all stages of their career. To that end we have been
working on various strategies to engage with and grow our
membership base.
This year, the SAS committee have been working hard to raise
the profile of the SAS doctor. An SAS Link scheme has been
developed and implemented with the aim of ensuring all SAS/
non-consultant hospital doctors are aware of the multitude of
services and support that it available from the Association. There
has also been the decision to elect an SAS representative onto
the Board.
The trainee committee have supported trainee members by
continuing work on pay issues. They have also championed the
wellbeing initiatives (some of which are listed in the wellbeing
section) and have nominated two representatives on the
committee to focus specifically on wellbeing issues.
Membership survey
The needs of our members are at the very heart of our
organisation, and this year we sought feedback and views
via our Membership Survey. With a response rate of 25%,
our members told us that the most important issues for the
Association to focus on were:
- Clinical care guidelines (57%)
- Working conditions (56%)
- Patient safety (56%)
More results are given further on in this issue.
New Membership Database and Website
This year we were proud to launch our new Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) member database and
website – helping our members stay in touch and find
information, including exclusive member benefits, quickly and
easily. If you have not yet used the new website, remember you
will need to register first to access your online account and the
benefits on offer. We have emailed you a pre-registration link.
Please contact
[email protected] if you need us to
send the link again. Using this personal link will allow you to
retain your account history with the Association.
Wellbeing
This year we announced our new partnership with the Royal
Medical Benevolent Fund (RMBF), the first of its kind and
an opportunity to break new ground by pooling collective
expertise. The aim is to ensure greater provision of help for
anaesthetists in the following areas:
- Tailored Association-RMBF services, toolkits and resources,
including signposting of wider wellbeing and mental
health services
- Promotion of the RMBF’s support for anaesthetists and
other medical professionals struggling with financial
hardship as a result of illness, injury, disability, age and
bereavement
- Break down the stigma affecting doctors seeking support
for stress, anxiety, burnout and other mental health issues
We are doing more for our members' wellbeing through a
range of campaigns and popular initiatives, such as:
- Suicide awareness – following the publication of our
survey in November’s issue of Anaesthesia, new guidelines
to help individuals and hospital departments support
colleagues in the aftermath of a suicide were published in
the autumn
- Our Fight Fatigue campaign (#fightfatigue) grows from
strength to strength (See Advocacy and Campaigning on
page 16)
- #CoffeeAndAGas - A Twitter campaign with the aim of getting anaesthetists
together in their hospitals to talk and to promote wellbeing
and community
- #knockitout - A joint social media campaign between the Association of
Anaesthetists and the Royal College of Anaesthetists, in
support of the British Orthopaedic Trainees Association’s
anti bullying campaign #HammerItOut
We also offer opportunities to help our members achieve their
full potential, such as mentoring and mentoring training, and
we continue to offer the Education Bursary Scheme for those
who are in financial difficulty.
Safety
Our vision is to promote safe anaesthesia through the provision
of information, education, guidance and expert advice to
anaesthetists and healthcare stakeholders.
The publication of guidelines is a core activity in promoting
patient safety. During the year we produced a range of new
publications, including:
- Anaesthesia Team
- Anaesthesia and peri-operative care for Jehovah’s
Witnesses and patients who refuse blood
- Cell salvage for peri-operative blood conservation
- Anaesthetic practice in the independent sector
- Safe practice of total intravenous anaesthesia (TIVA)
- Safe provision of anaesthesia in magnetic resonance units
- Peri-operative care of patients with dementia
- The ‘NAP5 Handbook’: Concise practice guidance on the
prevention and management of accidental awareness
- The Quick Reference Handbook, a collection of guidelines
for unexpected or uncommon anaesthesia related
emergencies was updated in response to latest evidence
- Guidelines on suicide amongst anaesthetists 2019
Research and innovation
Every year we work through the National Institute for Academic
Anaesthesia (NIAA) to award grants for research. This year
grants totalling £161,000 were awarded.
Applications submitted for our innovation award increase year
on year. The award recognises the importance of innovation
in healthcare for the benefit of patient safety, patient care and
improvements in the hospital workplace.
It aims not only to promote innovation in anaesthesia
and intensive care, but help individuals in their product
development journey 'from concept to the finished product'.
“Since winning the Innovation Award for MyPreOp we have
seen a marked increase in interest from the NHS in particular.
This has led to more demos of MyPreOp and this is now
filtering through to new contracts for Ultramed.” Dr Paul Upton,
CEO of Ultramed Ltd and winner of our annual Innovation in
Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Award 2019.
Environment
“Since 2016, we have cut emissions from anaesthetic gases by
45%, through education about the environmental impact of
different gases, supporting our colleagues to make informed
choices about their clinical practice, and using behavioural
nudges to reduce unintentional use of the more harmful
agents.” Dr Cathy Lawson, National Fellow for Environmentally
Sustainable Anaesthesia
As the movement to tackle climate change takes centre
stage, we recognise that our actions have an impact on the
environment, which is why sustainability and climate change
are key strategic issues for us. Key highlights include:
- Establishing the first fellowship in environmentally
sustainable anaesthesia; Dr Cathy Lawson has been in
post since February 2019
- Environment and Sustainability Committee - Established
to lead the specialty on environmental matters and green
anaesthesia
- Joint task group established with the NHS Sustainable
Development Unit (SDU); this aims to develop an
implementation plan for the reduction in anaesthetic
carbon emissions committed to in the 2019 NHS Long
Term Plan
- We are developing an Environmental Champions Network
to include at least one anaesthetist from every hospital in
the UK & Ireland. For more information go to
https://anaesthetists.org/Environmental-champions. If you
are interested in supporting your department in this role
please contact
[email protected] to express an
interest
- In February we devoted the whole issue of Anaesthesia
News
to environmental issues, and now have an
established environmental session at Annual Congress
- We are expanding our webinar programme, reducing
travel for our members. In December we ran our first
free webinar on the environment; over 100 delegates
‘attended’ from around the world
- We also proudly supported Clean Air Day in June, and
National NHS Sustainability Day in March
Education
Our calendar of educational events continues to reach more
people each year.
In total, 2000 delegates attended our three national
conferences – The Winter Scientific Meeting in London
(January), the Trainee Conference in Glasgow (July), the Annual
Congress in Dublin (September). In addition, we held 65
seminars and 13 regional Core Topics meetings across the UK
and Ireland.
Online learning
This year our online e-education courses through Learn@
provided access to 750 lectures online, and our new webinar
programme has attracted over 700 delegates. This year
we hosted seven webinars, including three that were free
to members. They covered blood management, fluids, hip
fracture, anaesthetic allergy, brain injury, environment and
anaesthesia updates.
International
Through our charitable foundation, we fund a range of projects
and activities to promote quality anaesthesia, critical care, pain
management, patient care and associated sub-specialties in
low-resourced environments through the exchange of skills and
knowledge.
This year we funded 21 projects in 10 different countries
through the International Relations Committee (IRC), helping us
to support improvements in care overseas.
The SAFE Africa fundraising campaign
Safer Anaesthesia From Education (SAFE) is a joint project
developed in 2011 by the Association and the WFSA (World
Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists). As part of its aim
to improve anaesthesia education and care in Africa, the SAFE
Africa fundraising campaign has a target to raise £100,000
over two years. With the help and committed support of our
members we have already raised an incredible £77,000 – see
our website to find out how you can help us achieve our target.
Heritage
A redecoration and upgrade to cabinet lighting helped to
enhance the visitor experience for our 2300 visitors to the
Heritage Centre this year.
Visitors also enjoyed two sell out ‘Lates’ events: ‘The Guinea
Pig Club: Archibald McIndoe, the Royal Air Force and the
Reconstruction of Warriors’ and ‘Brilliant Botany: Medicinal
plants of South America’.
Board members - Celebrating
diversity and inclusion
The Association of Anaesthetists welcomes diversity and is
committed to equality and inclusion in all aspects of our work.
In July, as part of our long-term strategy to take practical action
to implement diversity through our different work streams,
we appointed Dr Tei Sheraton (current Honorary Membership
Secretary) as our new diversity and equality board lead. Dr
Sheraton leads a diversity task group whose focus has been
gender equality within our education programmes. A themed
issue on diversity was published in
Anaesthesia News in May. The Diversity Policy can be found here:
https://anaesthetists.org/Diversity-and-equality
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