Enhancing Pediatric Emergency Skills: A Simulation-Based Medical Student Training

1. The use of simulation to teach medical students how to recognise and manage a sick child – A cluster randomised trial Harnik E, Mackay K, Jacob H, Morrissey B, Hassell J, King J, Mitchell H, Moreiras J Paediatric Department, Whittington Hospital, London, UK Correspondenceto:erika.harnik@nhs.net . Introduction and Objectives Medical students lack confidence in recognising, assessing and managing unwell patients, particularly children. [1,2,3] Death rates for acute illnesses in children are higher in the UK than in comparable European countries.[4] Failure to recognise serious illness at presentation is a recurring avoidable factor in many of these deaths.[5] Fig 1. Students work as a team to assess an acutely unwell child Our aim was to evaluate the impact of a one-day novel paediatric simulation course on medical students’ ability to recognise and assess sick children, and to evaluate medical students’ views on the use of simulation in child health teaching. Table 1: Post Course Confidence Strongly Agree Likert Scale Strongly Disagree Results 61 students participated - 32 in the intervention group and 29 controls. Post course confidence was significantly higher after the simulation course (p < 0.001) (Table 1) Key themes were identified including: - Exposure to an area of medicine not addressed elsewhere - Increased knowledge of paediatric emergencies - Increased ability to recognise, assess and manage sick children - Value of of learning through participation in ‘real-life’ scenarios - Appreciation of the importance of human factors Quotes from simulation participants : 'Absolutely amazing.  A truly valuable and useful experience which must be implemented more in the curriculum’ 'Brilliant - the more simulations we can do the better.’ Methods Conclusion A one-day simulation course improves medical students’ confidence in assessing and managing unwell children, and is highly valued by students. With low costs and short duration, such a course could be easily used to complement existing undergraduate paediatric teaching. Further studies are needed to evaluate its impact on real-life clinical performance and confidence over time. References 1. Smith CM et al. Intensive Care Medicine 2007 2. Tallentire VR et all. Postgraduate Medical Journal 2012 3. Cowan et al. Journal of Royal College of Physicians of London 1996 4. Wolfe et al. BMJ 2011 5. Pearson GA et al. Archives of Disease in Childhood 2010 Many thanks to the Whittington Hospital Simulation Suite for their support and expertise, and letting us use the simulation suite. Thanks also to the UCL medical students who took part and gave consent for their feedback to be used.