The Human Patient Simulator for Assessment of Operating Department Practitioners
Frances Forrest, Claire Fouque, Mark Bowers, Jon Teague
Bristol Medical Simulation Centre
Introduction: At Bristol Medical Simulation Centre (BMSC) we developed and validated a scoring system for technical assessment of trainee anaesthetists giving anaesthetics.1 A similar scoring system could be developed to assess the anaesthetic assistant.
Methods: Using an expert Delphi panel,2 we modified our original scoring system to assess operating Department Practitioners (ODP’s) setting up the anaesthetic equipment and assisting at a rapid sequence induction (RSI). Six ODP’s came to BMSC three months into their training programme (group A). Individuals were observed and videotaped assisting in the same simulation scenario. The whole group were debriefed on their performance. Six months later we repeated the process with group A. At this time another group (B) of five simulator naïve ODP’s, at the same stage of training as group A, were observed in the same scenario. Using the scoring system each performance was scored from videotape.
Results: The table shows the scores by one rater. A paired t-test demonstrated significant (p < 0.01) improvement in the performance of group A with time. Group B did not differ significantly from group A (p = 0.06).
|
|
Group A (3/12) |
Group A (9/12) |
Group B (9/12) |
|
Subject 1 |
94 |
132 |
82 |
|
Subject 2 |
97 |
120 |
97 |
|
Subject 3 |
81 |
117 |
131 |
|
Subject 4 |
71 |
134 |
114 |
|
Subject 5 |
87 |
122 |
101 |
|
Subject 6 |
83 |
135 |
|
Discussion: Group A’s performance improved with time as expected during early training. This may have been complemented by the simulation debriefing session. Group B’s results show a trend that is not as good as group A. However, it did not achieve statistical significance. We conclude that the simulator can be used to track performance of trainee ODP’s during training.
References:
1. Forrest FC, Taylor MA, Postlethwaite K, Aspinall R. Testing the validity of a high fidelity simulator for assessment of performance; the development of a technical performance scoring system and its application in the assessment of novice anaesthetists. British Journal of Anaesthesia. Accepted for publication September 2001
2. Clayton M.J. Delphi : a technique to harness expert opinion for critical decision-making tasks in education. Educational Psychology 1997; 4: 373-86