Perceptions and goals of preoperative planning conversations between anesthesiology residents and attending physicians.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate anesthesiology resident and attending perceptions of preoperative planning conversations (POPCs) and to generate understanding for improving the educational and clinical value of this practice. DESIGN: cross-sectional study. SETTING: two large Northeastern US academic residency training programs. PARTICIPANTS: clinically practicing anesthesiology residents and attendings. INTERVENTIONS: An electronic survey was administered to 303 anesthesia attendings and 168 anesthesia residents across two academic institutions between June and July 2014. MEASUREMENTS: Survey questions addressing phone call frequency and duration, clinical value, educational value and intended purpose of POPC were administered to both groups. Chi-squared tests were used to evaluate differences in responses between groups, with p < 0.05 as statistically significant. MAIN RESULTS: Responses were collected from 93 attending physicians (31%) and 80 trainee physicians (48%) for an overall response rate of 37%. 99% of residents reported paging their attendings to engage in the POPC the evening prior to all operations and 95% of trainees reported almost always receiving a call back from the attending. Trainees overwhelmingly reported attendings would believe they were unprofessional or negligent if they did not initiate a POPC (73% vs 14%, chi-square = 60.9, p < 0.001). Attendings were much more likely to view the POPC as a very important tool to discuss perioperative events (60% vs 16%, chi-square = 37.3, p < 0.001) and necessary for the majority or every case (59% vs. 31%, chi-square = 13.5, p < 0.001). The majority of attendings and trainees did not find the POPC to be a very important educational tool in terms of assessing trainee knowledge base (14% vs. 6%, chi-square = 2.76, p = 0.097), discussing teaching opportunities (26% vs. 9%, chi-square = 8.5, p = 0.004), or establishing rapport (24% vs. 7% trainees, chi-square = 8.3, p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: Significant discrepancies exist between how anesthesia attendings and residents perceive the purpose of the POPC, with trainees less likely to view the POPC as having clinical value and neither group perceiving the conversation as a very useful educational tool. The results highlight the need to reexamine the value of the daily POPC as a deliberate educational practice to meet expectations of both trainees and attendings.

Correction to: "It is this very knowledge that makes us doctors": an applied thematic analysis of how medical students perceive the relevance of biomedical science knowledge to clinical medicine.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

"It is this very knowledge that makes us doctors": an applied thematic analysis of how medical students perceive the relevance of biomedical science knowledge to clinical medicine.

BACKGROUND: Intensive study of the biomedical sciences remains a core component of undergraduate medical education with medical students often completing up to 2 years of biomedical science training prior to entering clerkships. While it is generally accepted that biomedical science knowledge is essential for clinical practice because it forms the basis of clinical reasoning and decision-making, whether medical students perceive an expanded role for their biomedical science knowledge remains to be examined. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative research study to explore how medical students in the first clerkship year perceived the relevance of biomedical science knowledge to clinical medicine during this pivotal time as they begin their transition from students to physicians. To identify previously unidentified perspectives and insights, we asked students to write brief essays in response to the prompt: How is biomedical science knowledge relevant to clinical medicine? Ten codes and four themes were interpreted through an applied thematic analysis of students' essays. RESULTS: Analysis of students' essays revealed novel perspectives previously unidentified by survey studies and focus groups. Specifically, students perceived their biomedical science knowledge as contributory to the development of adaptive expertise and professional identity formation, both viewed as essential developmental milestones for medical students. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study have important implications for ongoing curricular reform efforts to improve the structure, content, delivery, and assessment of the undergraduate medical curriculum. Identifying the explicit and tacit elements of the formal, informal, and hidden curriculum that enable biomedical science knowledge to contribute to the development of adaptive expertise and professional identity formation will enable the purposeful design of innovations to support the acquisition of these critical educational outcomes.

Why are you here? Needs analysis of an interprofessional health-education graduate degree program.

Little is known about the nature of faculty development that is needed to meet calls for a focus on quality and safety with particular attention to the power of interprofessional collaborative practice. Through grounded-theory methodology, the authors describe the motivation and needs of 20 educator/clinicians in multiple disciplines who chose to enroll in an explicitly interprofessional master's program in health profession education. The results, derived from axial coding described by Strauss and Corbin, revealed that faculty pursue such postprofessional master's degrees out of a desire to be better prepared for their roles as educators. A hybrid-delivery model on campus and online provided access to graduate degrees while protecting the ability of participants to remain in current positions. The added benefit of a community of practice related to evidence-based and innovative models of education was valued by participants. Authentic, project-based learning and assessment supported their advancement in home institutions and systems. The experience was described by participants as a disruptive innovation that helped them attain their goal of leadership in health profession education.

Web-conferenced simulation sessions: a satisfaction survey of clinical simulation encounters via remote supervision.

PURPOSE: A critical barrier to expanding simulation-based instruction in medicine is the availability of clinical instructors. Allowing instructors to remotely observe and debrief simulation sessions may make simulation-based instruction more convenient, thus expanding the pool of instructors available. This study compared the impact of simulation sessions facilitated by in-person (IP) faculty versus those supervised remotely using Web-conferencing software (WebEx(®), Cisco [ www.webex.com/ ]). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A convenience sample of preclinical medical students volunteered to "care for" patients in a simulation laboratory. Students received either standard IP or Web-conferenced (WC) instruction. WC sessions were facilitated by off-site instructors. A satisfaction survey (5-point Likert scale, where 1=strongly disagree and 5=strongly agree) was completed immediately following the sessions. RESULTS: Forty-four surveys were analyzed (WC n=25, IP n=19). In response to the question "Was the communication between faculty and students a barrier to understanding the case?," the average student responses were 2.8 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.4-3.2) for WC and 4.5 (95% CI 4.0-5.0) for IP (p<0.0001). In response to the question "Would you participate again in such a session?," the average student responses were 4.2 (95% CI 4.0-4.5) for WC and 4.9 (95% CI 4.6-5.2) for IP (p=0.0003). Both groups agreed that they acquired new skills (4.2 for WC, 4.5 for IP; p=0.39) and new knowledge (4.6 for WC, 4.7 for IP; p=0.41). CONCLUSIONS: Telecommunication can successfully enhance access to simulation-based instruction. In this study, a Web interface downgraded the quality of student-faculty communication. Future investigation is needed to better understand the impact of such an effect on the learning process and to reduce barriers that impede implementation of technology-facilitated supervision.

Literature review: instructional design and pedagogy science in healthcare simulation.

This article is a review of the literature focused on simulation as an educational intervention in healthcare. The authors examined the literature based on four key levels: (1) the validity and reliability of the simulator, (2) the validity and reliability of the performance evaluation tool, (3) the study design, and (4) the translational impact. The authors found that the majority of research literature in healthcare simulation does not address the validity and reliability of the simulator or the performance evaluation tool. However, there are well-designed research studies that address the translation into clinical settings and have positive patient safety outcomes.