Impact and effectiveness of a mandatory competency-based simulation program for pediatric emergency medicine faculty

Pediatric emergency medicine physicians struggle to maintain their critical procedural and resuscitation skills. Continuing professional development programs incorporating simulation and competency-based standards may help ensure skill maintenance. Using a logic model framework, we sought to evaluate the effectiveness of a mandatory annual competency-based medical education (CBME) simulation program.

The CBME program, evaluated from 2016 to 2018, targeted procedural, point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) and resuscitation skills. Delivery of educational content included a flipped-classroom website, deliberate practice, mastery-based learning, and stop-pause debriefing. Participants' competence was assessed using a 5-point global rating scale (GRS; 3 = competent, 5 = mastery). Statistical process control charts were used to measure the effect of the CBME program on team performance during in situ simulations (ISS), measured using the Team Emergency Assessment Measure (TEAM) scale. Faculty completed an online program evaluation survey.

Forty physicians and 48 registered nurses completed at least one course over 3 years (physician mean ± SD 2.2 ± 0.92). Physicians achieved competence on 430 of 442 stations (97.3%). Mean ± SD GRS scores for procedural, POCUS, and resuscitation stations were 4.34 ± 0.43, 3.96 ± 0.35, and 4.17 ± 0.27, respectively. ISS TEAM scores for "followed standards and guidelines" improved significantly. No signals of special cause variation emerged for the other 11 TEAM items, indicating skills maintenance. Physicians rated CBME training as highly valuable (mean question scores 4.15-4.85/5). Time commitment and scheduling were identified as barriers to participation.

Our mandatory simulation-based CBME program had high completion rates and very low station failures. The program was highly rated and faculty improved or maintained their ISS performance across TEAM scale domains.