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An evaluation of the use of deliberate practice and simulation to train interns in requesting blood products
Kenneth M Joyce1, Dara Byrne, Paul O'Connor
1From the Discipline of Surgery (K.M.J., D.B., M.J.K.), Galway University Hospital; and Discipline of General Practice (P.O.), National University of Ireland, Galway; and School of Psychology (S.M.L.), Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Introduction:
Technical or practical skills deficits upon graduation from medical school are prevalent and contribute to increasing medical error. The current study sought to evaluate the efficacy of a simulation- and deliberate practice-based learning program for requesting blood products, delivered to newly graduated interns.
Methods:
The requesting of blood products by a group of 27 "trained" interns was prospectively compared with that of a group of 30 "untrained" interns throughout the first 13 weeks of internship at an Irish teaching hospital.
Results:
Our analysis showed that the training intervention reduced the risk of a rejected sample by 65% as compared with interns who did not receive the training. Moreover, the risk of a rejected sample for trained interns was 45% lower than for much more experienced doctors. The untrained interns required more than 2 months of clinical experience to reach an error rate that was not significantly different from that of the trained interns.
Conclusions:
These findings indicate that skills acquired through deliberate practice generalized to the clinical setting led to a significant reduction in blood product prescribing errors.
