Training Opportunities

What opportunities are there to gain cleft experience during training?

There are multiple opportunities to gain cleft experience during training. Please see below for some ideas:

Clinical Exposure

• Join CFSGBI as a trainee member
• Join your specialty CEN
• Connect with your local cleft team and arrange observerships and participate in training events and workshops
• Attend training courses. Examples:
  • Surgery
    • Comprehensive Cleft Care Workshop  - https://cleftworkshop.org
  • Speech
    • CAPS-A training - https://www.caps-a.com

Audit and Service Improvement

• Local audit and service improvement with your cleft team or tri-centre (see UK cleft guidance to get inspiration for projects)
• See audit section of CFSGBI website for collaborative audit opportunities
• Engage with CRANE for national UK cleft audit
• Resources
  • Clinical audit support: http://www.clinicalauditsupport.com/what-is-clinical-audit.html
  • Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership: https://www.hqip.org.uk/resource/documenting-local-clinical-audit-a-guide-to-reporting-and-recording/#.YGCPcS2ZNQJ
  • King’s Fund: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/making-case-quality-improvement
  • Process Mapping: https://improvement.nhs.uk/documents/2143/conventional-process-mapping.pdf
  • Five Whys: https://improvement.nhs.uk/documents/2156/root-cause-analysis-five-whys.pdf
  • BMJ: https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.k5437

Research

• Research can be performed during training informally (alongside clinical commitments) or formally (usually funded to allows allocated time for research). Formal research may be undertaken within the structure of a higher research degree (ie MSc, MClinDent/DClinDent, MD, PHD).
• The Early Careers Research Group (ECRG) is an NIHR initiative specifically aimed at encouraging cleft and craniofacial research and welcomes new members.
• See the research section of the CFSGBI website to find out more information about cleft research organisations and funding opportunities.
• Complete Good Clinical Practice (GCP) online training - https://www.nihr.ac.uk/health-and-care-professionals/learning-and-support/good-clinical-practice.htm
• Attend conferences and present your work
  • CFSGBI Conference – Great Britain and Ireland conference
  • ICCPCA - International cleft conference
  • ECPCA - European cleft conference
  • Asian Pacific Cleft Lip-Palate and Craniofacial Congress
  • ACPA Conference – American cleft conference
• Publish your findings in peer reviewed journals
• Resources
  • STROBE guidelines for reporting observational studies: https://www.strobe-statement.org/fileadmin/Strobe/uploads/checklists/STROBE_checklist_v4_combined.pdf
  • PRISMA – guidance for the reporting of systematic review: http://www.prisma-statement.org
  • Statistical notes in the BMJ: https://www-users.york.ac.uk/~mb55/pubs/pbstnote.htm
  • Chrys Woods free course in using R for data analysis and visualisation: https://chryswoods.com/main/courses.html
  • NHS-R community: https://nhsrcommunity.com
  • Modern Dive: Statistical Inference via Data Science in R – a step-by-step guide with code: https://moderndive.com
  • CRD step-by-step guidance for undertaking reviews in health care – really good!: https://www.york.ac.uk/media/crd/Systematic_Reviews.pdf
  • ESRC Guidance on the conduct of Narrative Synthesis in Systematic Reviews: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/content-assets/documents/fhm/dhr/chir/NSsynthesisguidanceVersion1-April2006.pdf
  • Prospero – for registration of systematic review protocol: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/
  • Rayyan – freely available software to help with the article screening stages: https://www.rayyan.ai
  • Doing Meta-Analysis in R – a step-by-step guide with code: https://bookdown.org/MathiasHarrer/Doing_Meta_Analysis_in_R/

Cleft charities and global cleft

• Involvement in charitable organisations in the UK and overseas can be a great way of using your time, energy and skills to help in a meaningful way.  Trainees, as is the case for any medical professionals, should be mindful to ensure that their involvement in charitable organisations is governed by the same ethical standards as their routine clinical practice
• CLAPA is the UK organisation for patients with a cleft and there are opportunities for volunteers to help with their activities
• Charitable organisations involved with the provision of global cleft care are numerous and are based both in the UK and overseas. For more information on how to get involved see Global Care.
• Resources
  • Royal College of Surgeons of England – Ethical Principles of Working Overseas - https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/standards-and-research/standards-and-guidance/good-practice-guides/working-overseas/