• Fahad Alam, Vicki R LeBlanc, Alan Baxter, Jordan Tarshis, Dominique Piquette, Yuqi Gu, Caroline Filipowska, Ashley Krywenky, Nicole Kester-Greene, Pierre Cardinal, Meghan Andrews, Francois Chartier, Claire Burrows, Charles-Henri Houzé-Cerfon, Joseph K Burns, Lilia Kaustov, Shelly Au, Sandy Lam, Susan DeSousa, Sylvain Boet, and Perioperative Anesthesia Clinical Trials Group (PACT).
• Department of Anesthesia, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. Electronic address: fahad.alam@sunnybrook.ca.
• Br J Anaesth. 2024 Feb 1; 132 (2): 383391383-391.

BackgroundPhysiological changes associated with ageing could negatively impact the crisis resource management skills of acute care physicians. This study was designed to determine whether physician age impacts crisis resource management skills, and crisis resource management skills learning and retention using full-body manikin simulation training in acute care physicians.MethodsAcute care physicians at two Canadian universities participated in three 8-min simulated crisis (pulseless electrical activity) scenarios. An initial crisis scenario (pre-test) was followed by debriefing with a trained facilitator and a second crisis scenario (immediate post-test). Participants returned for a third crisis scenario 3-6 months later (retention post-test).ResultsFor the 48 participants included in the final analysis, age negatively correlated with baseline Global Rating Scale (GRS; r=-0.30, P<0.05) and technical checklist scores (r=-0.44, P<0.01). However, only years in practice and prior simulation experience, but not age, were significant in a subsequent stepwise regression analysis. Learning from simulation-based education was shown with a mean difference in scores from pre-test to immediate post-test of 2.28 for GRS score (P<0.001) and 1.69 for technical checklist correct score (P<0.001); learning was retained for 3-6 months. Only prior simulation experience was significantly correlated with a decreased change in learning (r=-0.30, P<0.05).ConclusionsA reduced amount of prior simulation training and increased years in practice, but not age on its own, were significant predictors of low baseline crisis resource management performance. Simulation-based education leads to crisis resource management learning that is well retained for 3-6 months, regardless of age or years in practice.Copyright © 2023 British Journal of Anaesthesia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

13 keywords...

hide…