Peer coaching increases emergency medicine faculty ability to perform and teach awake fiberoptic intubation

This study sought to evaluate the impact of peer coaching as a continuing medical education (CME) modality to improve faculty performance and teaching of a low-frequency, high-complexity procedure, awake fiberoptic intubation (AFOI).

Academic emergency medicine faculty at a single tertiary care, Level I trauma center participated in a prospective pre-/postinterventional assessment of a peer coaching educational intervention. Participants completed a preintervention online survey to identify comfort and previous experience with performing and teaching AFOI. The participants reviewed presession materials and then completed a 25-min didactic session with a peer coach. Participants were then broken into dyads where they initially each practiced the procedure and then attempted to teach the procedure to their colleague. An institutional standardized checklist for AFOI was utilized to assess participants procedural competency. Postintervention online surveys were compared to the preintervention surveys.

A total of 15 faculty members were recruited for the study and completed pre- and postintervention surveys. All participants showed ability to perform AFOI as proven by successful completion of the procedural checklist. There was a statistically significant increase for self-perceived efficacy in performing (p < 0.001, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.34 to 3.06) and teaching AFOI (p < 0.001, 95% CI = 1.56 to 3.05). All participants felt more likely to attempt AFOI after a single peer coaching session and most (14/15, 93.3%) were more likely to teach AFOI. Participants identified peer coaching as more effective at instilling confidence to perform and teach the skill than other CME activities that they have experienced.

This study demonstrates that peer coaching increases practicing faculty's ability to perform and teach a low-frequency, high-complexity procedure, AFOI. Peer coaching may offer an opportunity to improve the utility of learning compared to more traditional didactic-based CME initiatives.