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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Clinical debriefing (CD) following a clinical event has been found to confer benefits for staff and has potential to improve patient outcomes. Use of a structured tool to facilitate CD may provide a more standardised approach and help overcome barriers to CD; however, we presently know little about the tools available. This systematic review aimed to identify tools for CD in order to explore their attributes and evidence for use. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted in line with PRISMA standards. Five databases were searched. Data were extracted using an electronic form and analysed using critical qualitative synthesis. This was guided by two frameworks: the '5 Es' (defining attributes of CD: educated/experienced facilitator, environment, education, evaluation and emotions) and the modified Kirkpatrick's levels. Tool utility was determined by a scoring system based on these frameworks. RESULTS: Twenty-one studies were included in the systematic review. All the tools were designed for use in an acute care setting. Criteria for debriefing were related to major or adverse clinical events or on staff request. Most tools contained guidance on facilitator role, physical environment and made suggestions relating to psychological safety. All tools addressed points for education and evaluation, although few described a process for implementing change. Staff emotions were variably addressed. Many tools reported evidence for use; however, this was generally low-level, with only one tool demonstrating improved patient outcomes. CONCLUSION: Recommendations for practice based on the findings are made. Future research should aim to further examine outcomes evidence of these tools in order to optimise the potential of CD tools for individuals, teams, healthcare systems and patients.
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Delivery of Health Care , HumansABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The Medical Students Non-Technical Skills (Medi-StuNTS) system is a behavioural marker system (BMS) designed to identify and debrief non-technical skills (NTS) for medical students during immersive simulation. Educators must be adequately trained in using the BMS. This study aimed to design and implement an online platform to deliver a faculty development course on using Medi-StuNTS and evaluate the feasibility of this platform in training faculty to identify and debrief NTS. APPROACH: The online platform was developed by faculty with expertise in NTS, based on guidance for faculty training programme requirements and the multimodal model for online education. Content was arranged in modules, using presentations, videos of simulation scenarios and interactive discussion boards. EVALUATION: Fifteen participants completed the course and feedback over a two-month period. A feedback form was completed to assess feasibility, based on a feasibility framework. The areas of focus were acceptability, demand, implementation, practicality, adaptation, integration, expansion and limited efficacy. Feedback indicated that the course shows promise in improving the ability of faculty to identify and debrief NTS. IMPLICATIONS: The platform was successfully developed and implemented and was able to reach a national audience due to its online nature. Specific strengths include increased flexibility and accessibility compared to in-person training. Feasibility assessment suggests that this newly developed online platform can work as an effective method for faculty development in order to increase skills in identifying and debriefing NTS using Medi-StuNTS. Future work will focus on expansion of the online platform and dissemination to an international audience.
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Simulation Training , Students, Medical , Humans , Faculty , Clinical CompetenceABSTRACT
Introduction: Non-technical skills are recognised to play an integral part in safe and effective patient care. Medi-StuNTS (Medical Students' Non-Technical Skills) is a behavioural marker system developed to enable assessment of medical students' non-technical skills. This study aimed to assess whether newly trained raters with high levels of clinical experience could achieve reliability coefficients of >0.7 and to compare differences in inter-rater reliability of raters with varying clinical experience. Methods: Forty-four raters attended a workshop on Medi-StuNTS before independently rating three videos of medical students participating in immersive simulation scenarios. Data were grouped by raters' levels of clinical experience. Inter-rater reliability was assessed by calculating intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Results: Eleven raters with more than 10 years of clinical experience achieved single-measure ICC of 0.37 and average-measures ICC of 0.87. Fourteen raters with more than or equal to 5 years and less than 10 years of clinical experience achieved single-measure ICC of 0.09 and average-measures ICC of 0.59. Nineteen raters with less than 5 years of clinical experience achieved single-measure ICC of 0.09 and average-measures ICC 0.65. Conclusions: Using 11 newly trained raters with high levels of clinical experience produced highly reliable ratings that surpassed the prespecified inter-rater reliability standard; however, a single rater from this group would not achieve sufficiently reliable ratings. This is consistent with previous studies using other medical behavioural marker systems. This study demonstrated a decrease in inter-rater reliability of raters with lower levels of clinical experience, suggesting caution when using this population as raters for assessment of non-technical skills.
ABSTRACT
Background: The Medical Students' Non-Technical Skills (Medi-StuNTS) behavioural marker system (BMS) is the first BMS to be developed specifically for medical students to facilitate training in non-technical skills (NTS) within immersive simulated acute care scenarios. In order to begin implementing the tool in practice, validity evidence must be sought. We aimed to assess the validity of the Medi-StuNTS system with reference to Messick's contemporary validity framework. Methods: Two raters marked video-recorded performances of acute care simulation scenarios using the Medi-StuNTS system. Three groups were marked: third-year and fourth-year medical students (novices), final-year medical students (intermediates) and core medical trainees (experts). The scores were used to make assessments of relationships to the variable of clinical experience through expert-novice comparisons, inter-rater reliability, observability, exploratory factor analysis, inter-rater disagreements and differential item functioning. Results: A significant difference was found between the three groups (p<0.005), with experts scoring significantly better than intermediates (p<0.005) and intermediates scoring significantly better than novices (p=0.001). There was a strong positive correlation between the two raters' scores (r=0.79), and an inter-rater disagreement of more than one point in less than one-fifth of cases. Across all scenarios, 99.7% of skill categories and 84% of skill elements were observable. Factor analysis demonstrated appropriate grouping of skill elements. Inconsistencies in test performance across learner groups were shown specifically in the skill categories of situation awareness and decision making and prioritisation. Conclusion: We have demonstrated evidence for several aspects of validity of the Medi-StuNTS system when assessing medical students' NTS during immersive simulation. We can now begin to introduce this system into simulation-based education to maximise NTS training in this group.
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CONTEXT: Non-technical skills (NTS) training should be incorporated into medical students' education and simulation-based approaches are often utilised to facilitate this. Such experiences have the potential to foster transformative learning by facilitating a reassessment of one's prior assumptions and a significant shift in one's outlook, referred to as the process of perspective transformation. The aim of this research was to explore how NTS training might facilitate transformative learning in final-year medical students. METHODS: Following ethical approval, medical student volunteers from four medical schools (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow) participated in simulation sessions, were debriefed with an emphasis on NTS using a behavioural marker system and then took part in focus groups. Focus group discussions were semi-structured and questions were based on the phases of perspective transformation identified by Jack Mezirow. Focus group discussions were audiorecorded, transcribed verbatim, anonymised and analysed using template analysis. RESULTS: A total of 33 medical students took part in five focus groups. There was evidence of the following stages of perspective transformation: Phase 2 (self-examination with emotional disturbance, including fear, anxiety, guilt, shame and frustration); Phase 3 (critical assessment of assumptions, including the undervaluing of NTS, recognising that technical skills alone are insufficient, and recognising that it is possible to improve one's NTS); Phase 5 (exploring options for new roles, relationships and actions), and Phase 6 (planning a course of action for future simulations, as a medical student and as a doctor). CONCLUSIONS: This study deepens our understanding of how exposure to NTS training in simulation-based education influences the learning of medical students and shows that such exposure can result in the cognitive phases of transformative learning. It provides us with valuable insights into medical students' perspectives on their learning of NTS at a pivotal stage in training and represents an interesting way of assessing the educational impact of such sessions.
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Problem-Based Learning , Simulation Training , Students, Medical/psychology , Adult , Education, Medical , Emotions , Female , Focus Groups , Humans , Male , ScotlandABSTRACT
Simulation has been shown to be an effective method of delivering training in the management of acutely unwell patients. General practitioner (GP) trainees are a group in whom simulation training could contribute to their professional development. This project aimed to explore the potential impact of a simulation course for this group and to ascertain what trainees identified as their main training priorities regarding care of the acutely ill patient. A questionnaire was sent to GP trainees in Scotland to explore opinions on simulation through quantitative confidence scores and used qualitative free-text responses to identify their training priorities. Two-hundred and three GP trainees completed the questionnaire. They reported middle-to-low confidence levels in dealing with acutely unwell patients in the GP practice. Eighty-six per cent felt that simulation would be an effective method to increase confidence. The top five conditions identified as training priorities were: anaphylaxis, acute asthma, acute coronary syndromes, paediatric emergencies and cardiac arrest, and trainees highlighted the challenges specific to the primary care setting. GP trainees in Scotland would value simulation training and have identified their training priorities. These findings will be used to develop a simulation course for GP trainees in Scotland.
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BACKGROUND: Doctors are at an increased risk of suicide compared with the general population, and there is a current lack of formal education on suicide prevention for peers and colleagues. This educational project aimed to increase suicide awareness for medical students through simulation. METHODS: A simulation scenario was designed centred around a junior doctor (a qualified doctor who has not yet completed specialist postgraduate training) disclosing thoughts of suicide. The scenario and debriefing were designed using learning objectives and constructive alignment theory. Senior medical students participated in the scenario, which was followed by a facilitated debriefing and the provision of a framework for discussing suicide with a colleague. Quantitative and qualitative student feedback was collected and analysed. A simulation scenario was designed centred around a junior doctor colleague found distressed at work and disclosing thoughts of suicide RESULTS: A total of 35 students participated in the simulation over six sessions. Feedback indicated that students felt this subject was important and that the learning objectives had been achieved. DISCUSSION: This simulation scenario focusing on suicide awareness for senior medical students has provided opportunity for open discussion and reflection on the topic and has increased the awareness and understanding of suicidality in colleagues. This is one step in the direction of preventing further deaths by suicide in health professionals.