P049: Changes in situational awareness of emergency teams in simulated trauma cases using an RSI checklist

Abstract

Introduction: Situational awareness (SA) is the team understanding patient stability, presenting illness and future clinical course. Losing SA has been shown to increase safety-critical events in multiple industries. SA can be measured by the previously validated Situational Awareness Global Assessment Tool (SAGAT). Checklists are used in many safety-critical industries to reduce errors of omission and commission. An RSI checklist was developed from case review and published evidence.The New Brunswick Trauma Program supports an inter-professional simulation-based medical education program Methods: Simulations were facilitated in three hospitals in New Brunswick from April 2017 to October 2017. Learner profiles were collected. The SAGAT tool was completed by a research nurse at the end of each scenario. SAGAT scores were non-normally distributed, so results were expressed as medians and interquartile ranges. Mann Whitney U tests were used to calculate statistical significance. To understand the effect of the of an RSI checklist a comparison was made between SAGAT scores at baseline in scenario 1, and the same first scenario completed after a washout period. A Poisson regression analysis will be used to account for the effect of confounding variables in further analyses. Results: The group was composed of Registered Nurses (8), Physicians (7), and Respiratory Therapists (2). Situational awareness increased significantly with the use of an RSI checklist after 1 day of 4 simulations. The washout period ranged between 5 weeks and 8 weeks. The baseline situational awareness of the whole group during scenario 1 was 9 +/− 0.5 (median, IQR), and with the RSI checklist was 12 +/−1 (median, IQR). The difference was highly statistically significant, p=< 0.001. This level of situational awareness using checklist is comparable to the SAGAT scores after 10 scenarios. Conclusion: In this provisional analysis, the use of an RSI checklist was associated with an increase in measured situational awareness. Higher levels of situational awareness are associated with greater patient safety. A Poisson regression model will be used to understand the confounding effects of user expertise and the likely interaction with simulation exposure.