Increasing engagement in multi-professional obstetric emergency training through podcast production: Lessons learnt

Objective: The objective of this project was to increase awareness and engagement in multi-professional obstetric emergencies training, and wider issues within maternity safety, through a podcast entitled the PROMPTCast. We have documented the process, challenges and lessons learnt during this project. Design: When developing the PROMPTCast we liaised with multi-professional maternity teams and podcast producers. As PROMPT produces a variety of packages, such as the Annual Update, Pre-hospital, Community, Undergraduate and Global training resources, we wanted to broach a number of topics. Our design for each episode was based on common formats for other popular, non-medical podcasts, with four individual six-minute interviews making up one episode, and a maximum running time of 30 min to encourage engagement. Method: We aimed to release regular PROMPTCast episodes featuring interviewees covering a variety of topics, and focussing on new training resources, as well as important maternity topics such as equity, civility and human factors. We gained information from podcast producers about technical skills, equipment and facilities required. To monitor reach and engagement, we investigated different podcast platforms to retrieve listener data, and reviewed social media feedback. Results: Process: At the time of submission, we continue to release episodes for the PROMPTCast. Technical skills have improved with each episode due to increasing experience and expert support. Reach: We have used social media to reach and encourage listeners. Monitoring engagement: We have received positive feedback on episode content via podcast platforms and social media. We will publish the number of listeners at the time of the Congress. Challenges: Producing each episode has required extensive planning including: liaising with interviewees, topic research, generating questions, recording interviews (both face-to-face and online), editing for final production and publishing episodes on podcast platforms. These processes are currently not widely documented for medical podcasts. Lessons learnt: These include optimising recording set up, briefing interviewees appropriately and honing recording skills to ease the editing process. In addition, gaining experience with interviewer skills to promote succinct answers and a more natural conversational tone, can facilitate the listeners' experience. Conclusion: In conclusion, a podcast appears to be a dynamic and versatile way of reaching out to multi-professional maternity teams on a number of topics, and provides another medium for wider engagement. We have encountered challenges, but have also learnt valuable lessons which would benefit other teams aiming to produce similar podcasts. We aim to do further research to assess listener reach and feedback.

Citation

Lattey et al (2024, October). Increasing engagement in multi-professional obstetric emergency training through podcast production: Lessons learnt. BJOG. 131 (S5), pp. 149-150. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.17946

DOI

10.1111/1471-0528.17946

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14709/1236

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