Endocrine Abstracts

Background: AVP deficiency (AVP-D) or cranial diabetes insipidus (CDI) is a rare condition treated with Desmopressin. A patient safety alert was issued in 2016, following mortalities, with recommendations to implement: Desmopressin as a critical drug, raise awareness among healthcare professionals (HCPs) and has driven the name change.

Aim: To assess healthcare professionals’ knowledge on AVP-D and Desmopressin. To evaluate the effectiveness of a bespoke educational video.

Methods: 90 HCPs from STH NHS FT participated in this 10-point questionnaire. They were randomly allocated to two groups: the intervention group who watched the educational video upon completion of the survey and the control group who did not. The same survey was sent to all participants via email one week later. 35 responses were received.

Results: At baseline, 91% of the responders, mainly doctors and nurses, recognized this condition although 54% were unaware of the new term, AVP-D. 88% demonstrated good awareness on the importance of Desmopressin as a critical drug. However, only 47% were aware of potential complications following Desmopressin omission and 28% were familiar with the various preparations available. Interestingly, only one responder answered all questions correctly. From the subsequent 35 responses received, the control group had a better initial overall knowledge with a mean total score of 58% compared to that of the intervention group, whose mean total score was 46%. The intervention group showed substantial improvement (mean overall score 83%) after the educational video while the control group returned a relatively similar performance (mean overall score 65%).

Conclusion: Over half of HCPs were unaware of the name change. Knowledge on AVP-D and Desmopressin among HCPs requires further improvement. We have demonstrated a trend towards enhancing knowledge by utilizing our bespoke educational video. A larger study involving multiple centers could be conducted to ascertain the significance of our findings.