Multidisciplinary Simulation Activity Effectively Prepares Residents for Participation in Patient Safety Activities

In 2017, The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) issued Common Program Requirements that stipulated residents must participate in real or simulated interprofessional patient safety activities, such as root cause analyses (RCA). The requirements also stated that residents should have the opportunity to participate in the disclosure of patient safety events. Our institution supports a large graduate medical education (GME) cohort with approximately 1400 GME learners in more than 100 ACGME programs. Knowing that our university hospital system conducts approximately 15 RCA's per year, our GME leadership charged the Dean of Simulation with developing a pilot simulation activity that would satisfy these educational needs.

Four departments (Anesthesia, Emergency Medicine, OB/GYN, and Surgery) assigned a total of 39 learners to participate in the pilot simulation. Learners were divided into groups of 5 to 8 participants representing at least 3 departments. Before the simulation, learners were asked to complete a preactivity questionnaire rating their comfort with the learning objectives and a 10-question multiple choice quiz assessing knowledge of RCA principles. The simulation was 1-hour long and consisted of 2 parts. First, learners participated in a high-fidelity, mannequin-based resuscitation scenario that was scripted to include systems barriers to effective resuscitation. Second, our University Hospital's Vice President of Quality and Safety led participants in a simulated RCA analyzing the systems issues encountered. Finally, all learners completed a postactivity questionnaire and quiz. Preactivity and postactivity data were compared with repeated measures t-tests with p < 0.05 considered significant.

Complete data were available for 38 learners. We observed significant improvements in quiz performance and learners' self-reported abilities to perform tasks related to patient safety and RCA. The simulation activity did not affect learners' anxiety regarding potential participation in an RCA.

Our data indicate that a 1-hour, introductory-level simulation improved residents' confidence and knowledge related patient safety activities. This training format is efficient, effective, and consistent with the expectations of the new ACGME Common Program Requirement.