COMPLETED
PROJECTS
Prior to the new committee starting in the summer of 2022 the TRNs & RAFT had completed some amazingly impressive work. We look forward to working with the TRN networks and our collaborators to add to this impressive body of work to improve patient care!
RAFT 1
Cardiac Output Monitoring Survey - 2014
This was the first RAFT project and was carried out in 2014. It was a survey to establish how many cardiac output monitors were being used in the UK and to see if their introduction and use had been influenced by new guidelines at the time. RAFT 1 showed that several COMs were in use across the UK but that particular types were more popular over others. Although NICE and CQUIN guidance were reasons why COMs had been purchased the most common reason was clinical opinion.
RAFT 2
Intraoperative Hypotension in the Elder Patient - 2016
iHypE was a multicentre study to describe the incidence of intra-operative hypotension in patients over the age of 65 years. It also included a survey of anaesthetic practice assessing treatment threshold for hypotension. An impressive 4750 patients and 3366 anaesthetists over 196 sites were involved. iHypE demonstrated that intraoperative hypotension is common in this patient group. The survey showed that although most anaesthetists stated they intended to treat a 20% decrease in SBP or MAP the majority of vasopressor interventions occurred at set pressure thresholds. For more information check out the iHypE paper which was published in Anaesthesia.
RAFT 3
Drug Allergy Labels in Elective Surgical Patients - 2018
DALES was a hugely successful study thanks to the amazing work by RAFT collaborators. This study was designed to evaluate the prevalence of patient reported and documented allergy to drugs and learn more about anaesthetists’ knowledge and attitudes to allergy. It included an amazing 21,219 patients and 4798 anaesthetists across 213 NHS hospitals. DALES demonstrated that almost 30% of surveyed patients reported a history of drug allergies, however the majority of these were likely to be non-allergic reactions. At least 27% of patients with a penicillin allergy were deemed potentially suitable for direct drug provocation testing. However a significant proportion of anaesthetists would not be happy administering penicillins to patients de-labelled using a this test. For more information check out the DALES papers which were published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia.
RAFT survey 2022: a national survey on the experience of research and quality improvement during anaesthesia training in the UK
Equality, Diversity & Bias in Anaesthesia Training
This was a survey looking at equality, diversity and bias within anaesthetic training, as well as the impact that Covid-19 has had on anaesthetists in training. We would like to thank everyone who completed this survey. We will have more information about the results soon.
The impact of the COVID19 pandemic on anaesthesia training, recruitment & exams: a national survey
This was a RAFT survey to assess the impact of the pandemic on anaesthetists in training; specifically focussing on redeployment, speciality training, shielding, recruitment and examinations. We would like to thank everyone who completed this survey. We will have more information about the results soon.
CERA: COVID-19 Emergency Response Assessment
This was a multidisciplinary survey examining the impact of COVID-19 on the psychological health of frontline doctors. The project was led by the Trainee Emergency Research Network (TERN), in collaboration with RAFT, the Paediatric Emergency Research Network UK & Ireland (PERUKI), Irish Trainee Emergency Research Network (ITERN) & Trainee Research in Intensive Care (TRIC). The aim of this study was to examine the psychological impact of the COVID19 pandemic on frontline doctors. High rates of distress and trauma were identified with a number of influential factors being identified. This has led to further research and work on how to best help clinicians impacted by their experiences through the pandemic.