Children's Feedback in Revalidation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
How do stakeholders perceive the exclusion of children’s direct voices from feedback for medical revalidation? A qualitative study.
IRAS ID
201718
Contact name
James Fasham
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Plymouth
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
“Revalidation is the process by which licensed doctors are required to demonstrate on a regular basis that they are up to date and fit to practice” (http://www.gmc-uk.org/). This mandatory process began in 2012 and is supervised by the General Medical Council (GMC). It is now a requirement that all doctors who are not in training collect feedback from their patients every five years as part of this process.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) advises children’s doctors (paediatricians) to collect their feedback-for-revalidation from parents, not children. The evidence from one study supporting this position, showing that numerical feedback from children is “too idiosyncratic” to be useful. However, it was a small study, it grouped disparate groups of children together and tested them in a very adult manner.
This current status quo limits the rights of a children to involvement in their healthcare. These rights are legally protect and removing them should be robustly justified.
I am a doctor in specialist training. I identified this issue whilst working in paediatrics and studying for a Master’s degree in clinical education. This project is a student project that forms the dissertation for that Master’s degree.
I plan to use semi-structured interviews to understand the views of stakeholders about the current position: Is it justified? What effects does it have? How else could it be done? These stakeholders will include children over the age of 12 and their parents. These participants will be identified using leaflets distributed by paediatricians and interviewed together, once, in three person interviews (one child, their parent, one interviewer). Paediatricians will be approached directly and will be interviewed once.REC name
South Central - Berkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/SC/0246
Date of REC Opinion
16 May 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion