Education program on medical error disclosure for emergency medicine residents using standardized patients.

PURPOSE: We aimed to develop a program for error disclosure for emergency medicine (EM) residents to determine its effects. METHODS: Fifteen EM residents participated in 2020. The program included two-error disclosure sessions using standardized patients (SPs), a didactic lecture, and debriefing. The Kirkpatrick model was used to evaluate this program. Satisfaction scores and narrative reactions were collected (level 1). Residents were asked to choose their actions and explain reasons for the representative error cases before and after the program (level 2). After 2 months, they were asked to write their experiences of disclosing errors to real patients (level 3). The differences in the disclosing communication scores allocated by the SPs were compared between the senior and junior residents. RESULTS: The residents' satisfaction scores were high. Before the program, some residents chose not to disclose errors when there were no harmful sequelae at the time of the incident. After the program, opinions changed, and the residents thought that all errors should be disclosed. Before the program, most residents disclosed the errors to patients first; after the program, they would report to the hospital first to receive guidance. After 2 months, five residents reported disclosing errors to real patients. The senior residents' total scores and the scores for "prevention of future errors" were higher. CONCLUSION: The residents showed confidence in error disclosure while maintaining rapport with the real patient, and some were satisfied with their disclosure approach. Our error disclosure program for EM residents had a positive effect on their behavior and attitude toward error disclosure.

Burnout and Resilience among Emergency Physicians at Korean University Hospitals during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Analysis.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate burnout and resilience among emergency physicians (EPs) at university teaching hospitals during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In April to May 2021, a survey was administered to 331 and 309 emergency medicine specialists and residents, respectively, from 31 university teaching hospitals in Korea. Data on the respondents' age, sex, designation, working area, experience with treating COVID-19 patients, and personal experience with COVID-19 were collected. Based on the participants' characteristics, quality of life (compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress), resilience, emotional content, and self-image were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 247 responses were analyzed. Compared to specialists, compassion satisfaction and resilience in residents were not good, burnout was severe, and emotional content and self-image were less positive. Experiences with treating COVID-19 patients did not cause any difference in quality of life, resilience, emotional content, and self-image among participant subgroups. Personal COVID-19 experiences were associated with poor compassion satisfaction, resilience, less positive emotional content and self-image, and severe burnout. Compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, and resilience can definitively affect burnout. CONCLUSION: The quality of life and resilience of EPs in university teaching hospitals in Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic have been low. Supportive measures to improve resilience can prevent burnout among emergency staff, particularly residents and EPs, with personal experiences related to COVID-19.

Development and Evaluation of an Inter-professional Education Course at a Medical School in Korea.

BACKGROUND: Interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) is emphasized in medical care for patient safety. As patient care is provided by teams, interprofessional competence is required to ensure the quality and safety of care and should be taught as early as possible. In this study, we introduced a 2-week interprofessional education (IPE) curriculum and attempted to describe and evaluate its effectiveness among medical students. METHODS: We developed a 2-week IPE course and gave it to third- or fourth-year medical students (n = 166) from 2018 to 2019. The curriculum was composed of interactive lectures, discussions, small-group discussions, and simulation and was given to diverse medical students. Students were asked to report their satisfaction with the IPE program, write a reflection paper, and complete readiness for interprofessional learning scale (RIPLS) questionnaires before, immediately after, and 4 months after the curriculum. We also obtained 360° evaluations of the students by other health professionals 1 year after the training. RESULTS: The IPE program changed students' attitudes about interprofessional learning, from less favorable to more favorable. The 360° evaluation by nurses revealed that students became more favored as teammates (overall satisfaction with them as teammates increased from 3.1/5 to 3.4/5) compared to medical interns before IPE training, and complaints from nurses about medical interns were significantly less frequent 1 year after the training. CONCLUSION: The IPE program was effective in preparing medical students for team based collaborative practice even though it was short and exposed once in the curriculum. Further extension to other medical schools is recommended.

Improving disclosure of medical error through educational program as a first step toward patient safety.

BACKGROUND: Although physicians believe that medical errors should be disclosed to patients and their families, they often hesitate to do so. In this study, we assessed the effectiveness of an education program for medical error disclosure. METHODS: In 2015, six medical interns and 79 fourth-year medical students participated in this study. The education program included practice of error disclosure using a standardized patient scenario, feedback, and short didactic sessions. Participant performance was evaluated with a previously developed rating scale that measures error disclosure performance on five specific component skills. Following education program, we surveyed participant perceptions of medical error disclosure with varying severity of error outcome and their satisfaction with the education program using a 5-point Likert scale. We also surveyed the change of attitude or confidence of participants after education program. RESULTS: The performance score was not significantly different between medical interns and medical students (p = 0.840). Following the education program, 65% of participants said that they had become more confident in coping with medical errors, and most participants (79.7%) were satisfied with the education program. They also indicated that they felt a greater duty to disclose medical errors and deliver an apology when the medical error outcome is more severe. CONCLUSIONS: An education program for disclosing medical errors was helpful in improving confidence in medical error disclosure. Extending the program to more diverse scenarios and a more diverse group of physicians is needed.

Injury prevention priority setting based on the National Injury Surveillance data in Korea.

For the reduction of injury burden, injury prevention efforts are essential. However, financial, material and human resources are far from sufficient, and this situation necessitates setting priorities for effective injury prevention. Hence, the aim of this study is to prioritise 13 injury mechanisms for prevention of injury using four injury burden criteria. National death certificate, hospital discharge data and emergency data during 2004 were used. According to the 13 most frequent injury mechanisms (ICD-10), mortality priority score, years of potential life lost (YPLL) priority score, morbidity priority score and hospital charge priority score were calculated. Injury mechanisms which were ranked fourth or higher on at least three of the four criteria scores were arranged in rank orders. Traffic crashes ranked highest on all four of the priority criteria for injury prevention followed by fall and poisoning in second and third positions, respectively. Categorised by age groups, in 0-19 year olds, traffic crashes, suffocation and drowning; in 20-59 years, traffic crashes, suffocation and poisoning; and in 60 and over, traffic crashes and fall were shown to be significant injury prevention priority in rank orders. Injury prevention priorities identified from this study could be useful in strategically allocating limited resources and implementing more focused prevention policies in Korea.