Data Driven Competitive Motivation Strategies in a Longitudinal Simulation Curriculum for Trauma Team Training

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Simulation-Based Learning

Background:

• Trauma team performance is critical for patient outcomes.
• Current simulation debriefing methods may lack objective performance metrics.
• Surgical residents require effective training in both technical and nontechnical skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a novel data-driven debriefing approach for trauma team simulation.
• To assess the impact of performance report cards and video analysis on surgical resident skills.
• To determine the effectiveness of this method in enhancing team performance.

Main Methods:

• General surgical residents were divided into 5 trauma teams.
• Teams participated in 4 high-fidelity trauma simulations each.
• Individualized feedback included performance report cards and video-based assessment of nontechnical skills/Crisis Resource Management (CRM).

Main Results:

• Learner feedback was positive, rating simulation learning higher than didactic lectures.
• CRM scores showed improvement over the academic year, though not statistically significant.
• A strong positive correlation was found between technical and CRM skills.

Conclusions:

• Data-driven debriefing using report cards is a feasible and acceptable method to improve trainee performance.
• Positive competitive motivation influenced resident performance enhancement.
• Further research is needed to confirm CRM score improvements and explore the technical-CRM skill correlation.