Aims To investigate the impact of participation in acute simulation sessions on foundation doctors perceived confidence in their leadership abilities.

Methods Data was collected from participants who attended a foundation programme acute simulation session. They were asked to complete a pre and post session questionnaire regarding their perceived confidence in their leadership abilities, which they rated using a 5-point Likert scale. The pre and post score averages were calculated to ascertain if there was a change in the participants perceptions following the session.

Results 60 participants attended the session and completed the questionnaire. When asked about their confidence in leading whilst managing acutely unwell patients the pre-session average was 2.7 and post average score 3.8. When asked about completing an ABCDE assessment and making an initial management plan the pre-session average was 3.8 and post-session 4.8, and when asked about their confidence in recognising the limitations of their abilities the pre-session average was 4.2 and the post-session average 4.6.

Conclusions The results of this project have highlighted the low confidence foundation doctors perceived in their abilities to lead in acute situations. Conversely, they felt confident in recognising situations where they had reached the limitation of their abilities. There was a positive outcome from attending the session with an increase of 1.1 in the average score concerning participants confidence in leading acute situations and 1.0 in performing an ABCDE assessment and making an initial management plan. Overall, this work has demonstrated that attendance at an acute simulation session has improved the foundation doctor’s confidence in their leadership abilities. Further work is needed to ascertain what factors influence junior doctor’s perceptions of their leadership skills and whether the reported improvement in confidence impacted their clinical practice.