The Development and Implementation of a Simulation Orientation Curriculum for Newly Hired Pediatric Emergency...

The transition from trainee to new attending physician can be overwhelming. Simulation has been shown to be effective in orienting trainees to the emergency department (ED) but there is limited literature on simulation for the orientation of newly hired attending physicians.

The objective of this innovation was to develop, implement, and evaluate a simulation curriculum to supplement the orientation of newly hired attending physicians in our emergency department.

We developed a year-long quarterly simulation curriculum guided by Kern's six-step curricular design model. Based on a targeted needs assessment, nine scenarios were chosen for inclusion. These scenarios were arranged to start the curriculum with those simulation scenarios that highlight systems and processes particular to our institution, with a transition towards scenarios requiring more complex team leadership and medical management decisions in the latter portions of the curriculum.

We have completed two years of this curriculum and have had 14 participants in total. Thirteen participants completed the end-of-year evaluation. The curriculum has been well received by participants with unanimous agreement that the curriculum helped them lead acute patient scenarios in the resuscitation bay during their first year as a new hire.

Simulation for the orientation of new attending physicians can be implemented successfully and received well by the targeted learners and by leadership invested in supporting new attending physicians. While the specific scenario topics and institutional procedures are site-specific, the approach to curricular design and implementation is widely generalizable to other EDs.