1541 Treating Patients with Respect: Assessing the Completion Rate of The ReSPECT Form for Patients Admitted to Hospital

Aim To assess the current completion rate of the Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment (ReSPECT) form, and to identify ways to improve the completion rate for all inpatients under our care. Method All notes of admitted patients were reviewed for a completed ReSPECT form over a two-week period. Data was collected on whether a form had been completed and its respective fields. This was repeated in three cycles, introducing interventions between each cycle – trainee education and reminders were sent through our WhatsApp messenger group between cycles 1 and 2, and posters implemented between cycles 2 and 3. Results For cycle 1, out of 40 patient notes, 9 (22.5%) had a completed ReSPECT form. This increased to 25 out of 57 patients (43.9%) for cycle 2. Cycle 3 found 1 out of 16 patients (6.7%) had a completed ReSPECT form. Conclusions Our data demonstrated a significant deterioration in our compliance as a department. This could be due to a number of factors ranging from the coronavirus pandemic and staff redeployment to increased workloads, higher patient turnover, and new staff. In any outcome, the poster has proven to be ineffective. Whilst we identified that reminders via electronic message appear to have had an improvement, this has shown to be temporary, and may not be effective in busier times. As such, this audit has revealed a significant need for departmental change and to develop new strategies to improve compliance.

Characterizing the social media footprint of general surgery residency programs

Background The medical community has increasingly embraced social media for a variety of purposes, including trainee education, research dissemination, professional networking, and recruitment of trainees and faculty. Platform choice and usage patterns appear to vary by specialty and purpose, but few studies comprehensively assess programs’ social media presence. Prior studies assessed general surgery departments’ Twitter use but omitted additional social media platforms and residency-specific accounts. Objective This study sought to broadly characterize the social media footprint of U.S. general surgery residency programs. Methods Using a protocolized search of program websites, social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn), and internet search, cross-sectional data on social media usage in March 2020 were collected for programs, their affiliated departments, their program directors (PDs), and their assistant/associate PDs (APDs). Results 318 general surgery residency programs, 313 PDs, and 296 APDs were identified. 47.2% of programs had surgery-specific accounts on ≥1 platform. 40.2% of PDs and APDs had ≥1 account on Twitter and/or LinkedIn. Program type was associated with social media adoption and Twitter utilization, with lower usage among university-affiliated and independent programs (p<0.01). Conclusions Most general surgery residencies, especially non-university-based programs, lacked any department or residency accounts across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram by March 2020. These findings highlight opportunities for increased social media engagement and act as a pre-pandemic baseline for future investigations of how the shift to virtual trainee education, recruitment, conferences, and clinical care affect social media use.