Neurocritical Care Entrustable Professional Activities for Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Education and...

To develop a set of pediatric neurocritical care (PNCC) entrustable professional activities (EPAs) for pediatric critical care medicine (PCCM).

Survey and Delphi methodology in a panel of experts from the Pediatric Neurocritical Care Research Group (PNCRG) and the Education in Pediatric Intensive Care (EPIC) Research Collaborative.

Interprofessional local focus group, national focus group, and subsequent national multi-institutional, multidisciplinary expert panel in the United States.

The interprofessional local group of 23 members carried out work March 2022 to June 2022 and the national group of 19 members October 2022 to November 2022. Subsequently, 38 physicians from the PNCRG and EPIC networks carried out work December 2022 to August 2024.

None.

First, a preliminary set of 15 PNCC EPAs was developed by two local and national interprofessional groups. The EPAs were based on the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) practice analysis for PCCM, the ABP PCCM content outline, and stakeholder opinion. Next, a panel of critical care, neurology, and education experts used Delphi methodology to generate consensus, edit, and finalize the EPAs, with content validity. All EPAs were edited; two were deemed non-essential and not included in the final set of 13 EPAs. The EPAs fit three categories: general management and principles; disease-specific management; and neuroprognostication and end-of-life care. Consensus was reached after three Delphi rounds, with response rates of 31 of 38, 29 of 31, and 29 of 31, respectively. The final set of EPAs was approved by 30 respondents (response rate 30/31), with content validity indices 0.81-1.00.

The 2024 set of 13 EPAs are intended to be a valuable framework for competency-based curriculum and assessment to ensure consistent PCCM proficiency in the provision of neurocritical care while also promoting standardization in curriculum development for PCCM fellowship trainees.