What can you gain from engaging with us?
The aim of the Anaesthetic National Teaching Society (ANTS) is to deliver high quality and engaging teaching to medical students and junior doctors who are members of the ANTS, whilst concurrently offering them an insight into the anaesthetic speciality.
To continue to deliver on this, the ANTS is going to commence a national journal club and blog relevant to all members. Membership to the ANTS is free and this can be obtained by signing up to the mailing list using this link here. This first entry into our blog outlines how the blog and journal club are going to be run, how to take part in both and what you can take away from engaging with us on both platforms.
The ANTS Blog
Many other anaesthetic organisations produce blogs for their readers (1,2). These blogs contain useful and relevant pieces, but are not focused at the junior doctor and medical student level. Our aim is to produce a blog that medical students and junior doctors can engage with to learn more about anaesthetic practice and the profession.
Firstly, relevant anaesthetic material to both junior doctors and medical students will be regularly published. This will include perspectives from anaesthetic trainees to elective opportunities for medical students. A comments section after posts will give readers the opportunity to spark debate and to ask questions.
Secondly, previous teaching material will be made available via the blog allowing individuals to stay engaged, even when they cannot make live sessions. The ANTS aims to record its journal club meetings and publish these in the blog.
Thirdly, the blog will offer medical students and junior doctors an opportunity to improve their writing by submitting written pieces as part of a national essay competition.
An essay title will be released monthly and medical students and junior doctors are invited to submit entries by a specified date. Titles and entry deadlines will be circulated by social media and the deanery/university reps. The best entry, as judged by a panel of consultants, will receive a national prize for their work and have their submission published as part of the blog. Winners will be notified before their entry is published and will receive a certificate confirming receipt of a national prize.
The title for the first essay competition, with the best entry being published in early December, is:
‘A medical student’s/foundation year doctor’s perspective on Core Anaesthetic Training.’
Entries from members of the ANTS should be 750-1000 words long, will be evidenced-based where possible using referencing (Vancouver style) and will be submitted here by Monday 22nd November. Please use the link here to sign up to the mailing list if you plan on submitting an essay.
The ANTS Journal Club
The ANTS journal club is a forum for discussion for junior doctors and medical students to have discourse around research in anaesthetics and medical education. Our aim is to highlight new findings and guidelines surrounding anaesthetics and dive deep into the ‘what, why and how’ on clinical guidelines and teaching.
Traditionally, journal clubs tend to be face-to-face meetings. With the changing times, we thought it best to widen our reach on a national scale by hosting a journal club online. Journal clubs date as far back as the mid 1800s when medical practitioners sought a forum to discuss and share research. Without the world wide web, many doctors and research scientists found it economically beneficial to band together and share resources and access to research.
In our world of rapid consumption and wide accessibility of data, this can often remain a barrier to collaboration and discussion among medical professionals thereby diminishing interprofessional discourse. We aim to offer a modern approach to running our journal club, with our model based on the ‘digital platform’ method described by the British Medical Journal (3).
Why attend a journal club?
The point of a journal club is to keep abreast of new research. Aside from that, there are several other transferable skills that a journal club offers:
Learn the art of critical appraisal of published research – what makes good and bad research?
Gain experience presenting at a national journal club.
Network among other like-minded individuals! If you’re on the scout for an inspiring figure in anaesthetics, then this is a great place to forge those connections.
Regular attendance demonstrates great ‘Commitment to Specialty’. Certificates will be issued to ANTS members who attend 10 out of the 12 journal club sessions over the next 6 months.
Our first series of Journal Club sessions over the next 6 months will centre around:
‘Medical Emergencies in Anaesthesia’
The theme of the first session will be Anaphylaxis. At our first journal club meeting, the changes in the recent anaphylaxis guidelines will be discussed by looking at recent evidence surrounding this (4).
How will it run?
The journal club will run twice a month with the first journal club being in early December. A date will be circulated via medical school/deanery reps and on social media with a link for attendees to join.
Discussions will be facilitated by a senior anaesthetic trainee and committee members from the ANTS. All with an interest in medical emergencies are welcome to attend. Before each journal club, any medical student or junior doctor with an interest in presenting a paper relevant to the topic are welcome to submit the paper to the ANTS. The paper should be from a peer-reviewed journal.
Following this, 3 relevant papers will be selected, discussed and appraised. The attendee who submitted the paper will be invited to present their chosen paper at the national journal club before a discussion is facilitated.
We are calling for submissions of abstracts for the first ANTS Journal Club session pertaining to Anaphylaxis. Please submit your chosen paper here.
References
1. The Association of Anaesthetists - The President’s Blog. Available from: https://anaesthetists.org/The-Presidents-Blog
2. The Royal College of Anaesthetists - Blog. Available from: https://www.rcoa.ac.uk/blog?page=4
3. McGlacken-Byrne SM, O;Rahelly M, Cantillon P, Allen NM. Journal club: old tricks and fresh approaches. Archives of disease in childhood - Education & practice edition [Internet]. 2020 Aug 1;105(4):236 LP – 241. Available from: http://ep.bmj.com/content/105/4/236.abstract
4. UK Resuscitation Council. Emergency treatment of anaphylaxis: Guidelines for healthcare providers Guideline (PDF). Available from: https://www.resus.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-05/Emergency Treatment of Anaphylaxis May 2021_0.pdf
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