Enhancing paediatric resuscitation team performance: targeted simulation-based team leader training

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Emergency Medicine
• Clinical Teamwork

Background:

• Effective team leadership is crucial for successful resuscitation outcomes.
• Prior research often concentrated on trainee performance and simulation results.
• The impact of targeted training on experienced physicians during actual resuscitations remained less explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate if a focused simulation-based educational intervention for experienced physicians improves performance in real clinical resuscitations.
• To assess specific process and communication goals during pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) resuscitations.
• To investigate the effectiveness of rapid cycle deliberate practice for supervising physicians.

Main Methods:

• An observational pilot study was conducted involving PEM supervising physicians.
• A 1-hour simulation-based training intervention using rapid cycle deliberate practice was implemented.
• Clinical resuscitation videos before and after the intervention were reviewed to assess key process metrics.

Main Results:

• Participating teams showed significant improvements in targeted process metrics post-intervention.
• Time to patient transfer within 1 minute improved from 79% to 100% (p=0.03).
• Time to primary assessment within 3 minutes improved from 28% to 75% (p=0.01), and summary statement within 5 minutes improved from 50% to 85% (p=0.03).

Conclusions:

• Brief, focused simulation-based training for team leaders can enhance teamwork and communication.
• Experienced clinicians demonstrated improved performance in actual resuscitation settings after targeted training.
• Simulation-based education is a valuable tool for improving clinical resuscitation performance.