Abstract
BackgroundSimulation-based medical training (SBMT) is a powerful tool for continuing medical education. In contrast to the Anglo-Saxon medical education community, up until recently, SBMT was scarce in continental Europe’s pediatric health care education: In 2009, only 3 Swiss pediatric health care institutions used SBMT. The Swiss catalogue of objectives in Pediatrics does not acknowledge SBMT. The aim of this survey is to describe and analyze the current state of SBMT in Swiss pediatric hospitals and health care departments.MethodsA survey was carried out with medical education representatives of every institution. SBMT was defined as any kind of training with a mannequin excluding national and/or international standardized courses. The survey reference day was May 31st 2015.ResultsThirty Swiss pediatric hospitals and health care departments answered our survey (response rate 96.8%) with 66.6% (20 out of 30) offering SBMT. Four of the 20 hospitals offering SMBT had two independently operating training simulation units, resulting in 24 educational units as the basis for our SBMT analysis. More than 90% of the educational units offering SBMT (22 out of 24 units) were conducting in-situ training and 62.5% (15 out of 24) were using high-technology mannequins. Technical skills, communication and leadership ranked among the top training priorities. All institutions catered to inter-professional participants. The vast majority conducted training that was neither embedded within a larger educational curriculum (19 out of 24: 79.2%) nor evaluated (16 out of 24: 66.6%) by its participants. Only 5 institutions (20.8%) extended their training to at least two thirds of their hospital staff.ConclusionsTwo thirds of the Swiss pediatric hospitals and health care departments are offering SBMT. Swiss pediatric SBMT is inter-professional, mainly in-situ based, covering technical as well as non-technical skills, and often employing high-technology mannequins. The absence of a systematic approach and reaching only a small number of healthcare employees were identified as shortcomings that need to be addressed.
Highlights
Simulation-based medical training (SBMT) is a powerful tool for continuing medical education
And/ or internationally standardized courses such as Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), European Pediatric Life Support (EPLS), Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) Basic Life Support (BLS), or the Swiss neonatal resuscitation program were excluded from our SBMT definition, because these formats constitute standard training programs recommended for Swiss pediatric board certification and do not mandate the use of simulation technology
The Swiss Institute of Medical Education (SIWF) categorizes these pediatric hospitals according to the degree of health care services they provide: Hospitals offering basic are defined as category 1; extended primary health care hospitals offering optional subspecialties are defined as category 2; category 3 offers a higher degree and category 4 offers the highest degree of educational specialization [20]
Summary
Simulation-based medical training (SBMT) is a powerful tool for continuing medical education. In contrast to the Anglo-Saxon medical education community, up until recently, SBMT was scarce in continental Europe’s pediatric health care education: In 2009, only 3 Swiss pediatric health care institutions used SBMT. Up until recently SBMT was scarce in continental Europe’s pediatric health care education [13] This is contrasted by the medical education communities of North America, Australia and the United Kingdom which have embraced SBMT for some time [5, 14,15,16]. The post graduate training program of the Swiss Pediatric catalogue of objectives released by the Swiss Institute of Medical Education (SIWF) supports nationally and/or internationally standardized courses in neonatal and pediatric
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