Pediatric Palliative Care Simulation Improves Resident Learning Outcomes: An 11-Year Review

Many general pediatrics residents lack sufficient opportunities to conduct difficult conversations with families, particularly about end-of-life care. Simulation learning is an effective means of practicing professional skills. A pediatric palliative care (PPC) physician is uniquely suited to mentor residents and fellows learning to lead difficult conversations through simulation. Co-facilitation of the simulated difficult conversation by a bereaved parent or family member enhances the learning experience.

To report 11-years' experience simulating difficult conversations with bereaved parent-actors.

PPC physicians developed two simulations to teach difficult conversations to clinical learners at a midwestern quaternary pediatric medical center. Bereaved parents and hospital chaplains co-facilitated the simulation. The first portrayed the death of an infant following emergency resuscitation, and the second, a goals-of-care conversation with the parent of a child with a degenerative condition. A de-novo evaluation rubric was prepared using the six Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Core Competencies to evaluate the participant's performance in the simulation.

For the first simulated scenario (N = 194 residents; N = 16 fellows), residents improved significantly on 16/21 ACGME-based criteria between encounters; for the second (N = 118 residents; N = 14 fellows), residents improved significantly on 10/21 criteria. Fellows' performance did not improve significantly in either scenario, but they presented with high baseline scores.

Simulations with bereaved parent actors improved general pediatrics residents' performance and comfort during difficult conversations and are transportable to diverse settings.