Medical Emergency During Flight: A Team-Building Exercise

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Healthcare Team Training
• Experiential Learning

Background:

• Healthcare professionals often lack formal team training.
• Effective teamwork is crucial for patient care.
• Traditional training methods may not fully prepare teams for complex scenarios.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a novel survival exercise for healthcare team training.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of experiential learning in developing team skills.
• To provide a realistic simulation for medical professionals.

Main Methods:

• A survival exercise scenario involving an in-flight medical emergency was developed.
• Participants included medical students, residents, and faculty physicians.
• The activity was implemented as a stand-alone exercise or workshop component.

Main Results:

• Over 100 participants from various medical disciplines engaged in the activity.
• The exercise was well-received, fostering discussion on medical knowledge and teamwork.
• Participants reported enhanced understanding of team dynamics and decision-making.

Conclusions:

• The survival exercise is a valuable tool for assessing team communication, decision-making, leadership, and conflict management.
• It is suitable for both intra-professional and inter-professional healthcare training.
• This experiential approach significantly improves team effectiveness in medical settings.