Lateral Canthotomy Task Trainer in an Educational Small Group for Flight Providers

Lateral canthotomy is a rare, emergent, vision-preserving procedure to treat orbital compartment syndrome. Using Ericsson's deliberate practice model, we aimed to develop a multimodal small group intervention including a modified low-fidelity task trainer to improve flight physician knowledge and technical competency for lateral canthotomy in the prehospital context.

Two cohorts of resident (postgraduate year 1) flight physicians received small group training during an all-day competency-based flight physician orientation. The first cohort completed self-report pre- and postintervention assessments. In the second cohort, examiners assessed pre- and postintervention performance.

Comparing pre- and postintervention responses (N = 27), the mean agreement with the knowledge of indications increased from 3.7 to 4.8. The mean agreement regarding confidence in skills increased from 2.2 to 4.2 (P < .001). The majority of participants (20/27) indicated the trainer "definitely helped," whereas 7 of 27 residents indicated the trainer "somewhat helped" them to learn skills. Examiners assessed holistic learner performance (n = 13) as improved from a mean of 3.2 preintervention to 4.7 postintervention, with 11 of 13 learners demonstrating improvement (P < .005).

We demonstrate the feasibility of a brief small group training combining multimodal didactics with a modified low-fidelity task trainer. Resident self-assessment and examiner assessment demonstrated improved procedural skill with lateral canthotomy.