Educating Respiratory Care Practitioners With Patient Case Scenarios Through High Simulation Mannequins Improves Satisfaction and Clinical Relevance

Abstract

Background:

Procedural and equipment competencies are a requirement for many respiratory care practitioners (RCP’s). Simulation based training may be used to improve knowledge and safety in areas of high risk and high-stress environments. Previous annual skills days in the RT department at UC Davis Health utilized lecture and hands on equipment training. We set out to see if including the use of high simulation mannequins with real life scenarios in skills day education would improve RCP satisfaction of education, relevance, and if the RCP felt there was an investment in their clinical knowledge.

Methods:

Two RCP clinical educators, five RCP’s, and two simulation specialists at UC Davis Health created and facilitated two high simulation scenarios utilizing mannequins at each of the 10 skills day in 2018. The high simulation mannequins spoke, had breath sounds, pulses, vital signs, and the ability to be ventilated on mechanical ventilators. Asthma and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) scenarios were created to educate the RCP clinical staff on assessment, treatments, and ventilation modalities of these disease processes. These scenarios were an hour long each, broken into three segments that accommodated three RCP’s to assess and treat the mannequin patients, while six of their RCP colleagues viewed and listened from a separate room. The entire group would then congregate for debriefing after each segment of the scenario.

Results:

36 of the 123 (29%) RCP’s who attended the 2018 annual skills day responded to the anonyms online survey. 35 (97%) RCP’s felt that the topics were relevant to their daily practice. 34 (94%) RCP’s felt there was an overall improvement in skills day compared to previous years. All respondents (100%) felt the RT department was committed to furthering their knowledge and education.

Conclusions:

It is well understood that simulation is a safe and effective method of education for clinicians. These survey results show that RCP’s are satisfied with the case scenario and high simulation style of learning and feel it relevant to their everyday practice. Instituting this type of education may also contribute to the satisfaction that RT departments are dedicated to fostering their RCP staff's clinical knowledge.