TY - JOUR T1 - Are general internal medical (GIM) trainees confident in the thrombolysis of acute pulmonary embolism? JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 44 IS - Suppl 58 SP - P2799 AU - Rebecca Dickinson AU - Sega Pathmanathan Y1 - 2014/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P2799.abstract N2 - Background:The decision to thrombolyse may be a difficult one with guidance for high risk (with haemodynamic instability) and intermediate risk PEs (those with evidence of cardiac dysfunction but stable) being different between international societies.Methods:We designed a 10 question survey using a web-based survey programme (surveymonkey.com) with a computer generated link for easy access. A Likert scale (1-5) was used for confidence assessment. The link was sent to all GIM trainees (ST3 and above) within the East and West regions of the Yorkshire Deanery. The data was analysed using Microsoft excel.Results:Two hundred and fifty trainees dual training in GIM and a specialty were contacted with 61 fully completing the survey (24.4%) and two partial responses.The replies were spread amongst all training grades and specialities with ST3 (23.8%) and Care of the Elderly (27%) being most common respectively. 62% of trainees had thrombolysed a PE with the majority (88.9%) expected to initiate treatment. However only 22.2% had had formal teaching in thrombolysing PEs and 41.9% of trainees felt unconfident in deciding the need for thrombolysis.Senior support was available to trainees mainly from the oncall respiratory or general medical consultant.Conclusion:Those expected to initiate and manage patients with massive PEs should be appropriately trained to deal with this situation. However there does appear to be a gap in the formal training process.We recognise the difficulties in choosing patients who may benefit from thrombolysis and therefore it was reassuring that trainees knew who they could contact for support. ER -