P35 Using simulation teaching to increase confidence in paediatric emergencies, within the emergency, pre-hospital and immediate care (EPIC) intercalated BSc

Abstract

Background There is a national recruitment and retention crisis in Emergency Medicine. Within Wales the retention of trainees within emergency medicine is the main issue, nearly a quarter of Emergency Medicine trainees are not completing speciality training despite an all time high satisfaction rating of Emergency Medicine training in Wales. This could be due to the limited exposure to the specialty prior to entering specialty training. EPIC was created to address this and increase exposure to Emergency Medicine prior to completion of undergraduate training. The EPIC iBSc degree covers 5 modules including: Sports, Pre-hospital and Other Emergencies, Emergency Diagnostics, Resuscitation Science, Trauma Science and Paediatric Emergency Medicine, each with a teaching week followed by a clinical placement. In addition, students undertake an Intercalated Research Project, allowing them the opportunity to research one of the Emergency/Pre-hospital Medicine areas to a more advanced level. Summary of Work Simulation teaching is used to increase the students experience and confidence within Paediatric Emergencies. We asked the students to self-report confidence levels on a Likert scale pre and post simulation. Summary of results Results were analysed in XLStat 2018, using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test for comparison of 2 non-parametric sets of data. All of the simulation sessions run as part of the Paediatric module teaching week have demonstrated a significant increase in confidence post simulation. (Cardiac Arrest p=0.009, Trauma p=0.005, Asthma p=0.008, Anaphylaxis p=0.007, Sepsis p=0.006 and Seizure p=0.006.) Discussion and conclusions We have demonstrated that the use of a simulation program within the Paediatric focus week of EPIC results in an increase in confidence amongst the students. We are equipping the students with experience of Paediatric Emergencies, giving them the day-to-day skills and confidence necessary to become competent Foundation Doctors. As a part of an integrated BSc course encouraging them to consider Emergency Medicine as a future career. Recommendations We recommend that simulation teaching should be routinely included in the teaching schedule for medical students in order to increase their confidence and knowledge within a safe environment. Reference Zendejas B, Brydges R, Wang AT, Cook D. Patient outcomes in simulation-based medical education: A systematic review. Journal of General Internal Medicine 2013. Griswold S, Fralliccardi A, Boulet J, Moadel T, Franzen D, Auerbach M, Hart D, Goswami V, Hui J, Gordon JA. Simulation based education to ensure provider competencey within the heathcare system Academic Emergency Medicine sponsored Consensus Conference 2017.