Mental practice: a simple tool to enhance team-based trauma resuscitation

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Teamwork and Communication
• Trauma Care

Background:

• Effective trauma resuscitation relies on interdisciplinary team coordination.
• Mental practice (MP), the mental rehearsal of skills, enhances technical and procedural learning.
• The impact of MP on nontechnical, team-based trauma skills remains unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effectiveness of mental practice (MP) in improving team-based skills for trauma resuscitation.
• To compare MP with traditional Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) training for nontechnical skills development.

Main Methods:

• Anesthesiology, emergency medicine, and surgery residents were randomized into MP and control groups.
• The MP group received 20 minutes of mental practice, while the control group received 20 minutes of ATLS training.
• Teams participated in a simulated trauma resuscitation, with performance scored using the Mayo High Performance Teamwork Scale (MHPTS).

Main Results:

• The MP group demonstrated significantly better teamwork behavior compared to the control group (r=0.67, p<0.01).
• The study involved 78 residents randomized into two groups.

Conclusions:

• Mental practice (MP) improves team-based skills more effectively than traditional simulation-based trauma instruction.
• MP presents a potentially valuable and economical method for enhancing nontechnical skills in team-based trauma care.