Comparison of Cardiac Auscultation Features on Four Different Simulation Mannequins Performed by Pediatric Residents

Cardiac murmurs are a common problem in pediatric clinical practice. Studies demonstrated low accuracy in detecting and diagnosing various cardiac murmurs at all levels of medical training. So, supplementary training methods started to evolve, including simulation for auscultation skills training. Over the years, mannequins have evolved with different types of technology. Therefore, we decided to compare cardiac auscultation accuracy among high-fidelity mannequins as the primary objective and compare the performance of various postgraduate-level residents as a secondary objective.

Pediatric residents at King Abdulaziz University Hospital were given a lecture on the basics of cardiac auscultation and then requested to auscultate four mannequins, namely SimJumior® (Laerdal Medical, Stavanger, Norway), SimBaby™ (Laerdal Medical), Pediatric HAL® (Gaumard Scientific, Miami, FL, USA), and Cardiac Patient Simulator K-Plus (Kyoto Kagaku Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan). The accuracies of murmur type, diagnosis, and auscultation time were compared.  Results: A total of 56 pediatric residents were enrolled. Median murmur accuracy ranged from 50% to 53% (p-value 0.79), and median diagnosis accuracy ranged from 33% to 36% (p-value 0.77), with a nonsignificant difference between mannequins. Comparing resident levels in all mannequins, median murmur accuracy ranged from 49% to 56% (p-value 0.70), and median diagnosis accuracy ranged from 29% to 41% (p-value 0.09). While the median average auscultation time was between 41 and 50 seconds (p-value 0.34).

Auscultation skills can be taught through simulation on any mannequin used in this comparison, not necessarily the cardiac one. For better accuracy, future comparisons might include more advanced cardiac mannequins based on cardiac auscultation expertise (i.e., consultant level). The introduction of an auscultation program from the undergraduate level throughout the training process and monitoring of these skills are mandated.