Important knowledge for parents of children with heart disease: parent, nurse, and physician views.

OBJECTIVES: Parental understanding of their children's heart disease is inadequate, which may contribute to poor health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine what parental knowledge is important in the care of children with heart disease from the perspective of parents, nurses, and physicians. METHODS: Focus groups were formed with parents of children with single ventricle congenital heart disease (CHD), biventricular CHD, and heart transplantation, and with nurses and physicians who provide care for these children. A nominal group technique was used to identify and prioritise important parental knowledge items and themes. The voting data for each theme were reported by participant type--parent, nurse, and physician--and patient diagnosis--single ventricle CHD, biventricular CHD, and heart transplantation. RESULTS: The following three themes were identified as important by all groups: recognition of and response to clinical deterioration, medications, and prognosis and plan. Additional themes that were unique to specific groups included the following: medical team members and interactions (parents), tests and labs (parents), neurodevelopmental outcomes and interventions (physicians), lifelong disease requiring lifelong follow-up (physicians and nurses), and diagnosis, physiology, and interventions (single ventricle and biventricular CHD). CONCLUSIONS: Parents, nurses, and physicians have both common and unique views regarding what parents should know to effectively care for their children with single ventricle CHD, biventricular CHD, or heart transplantation. Specific targeted parental education that incorporates these findings should be provided to each group. Further development of questionnaires regarding parental knowledge with appropriate content validity is warranted.

Influence of Clinical Competency Committee Review Process on Summative Resident Assessment Decisions.

BACKGROUND: Clinical Competency Committees (CCCs) are charged with making summative assessment decisions about residents. OBJECTIVE: We explored how review processes CCC members utilize influence their decisions regarding residents' milestone levels and supervisory roles. METHODS: We conducted a multisite longitudinal prospective observational cohort study at 14 pediatrics residency programs during academic year 2015-2016. Individual CCC members biannually reported characteristics of their review process and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education milestone levels and recommended supervisory role categorizations assigned to residents. Relationships among characteristics of CCC member reviews, mean milestone levels, and supervisory role categorizations were analyzed using mixed-effects linear regression, reported as mean differences with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and Bayesian mixed-effects ordinal regression, reported as odds ratios (ORs) and 95% credible intervals (CrIs). RESULTS: A total of 155 CCC members participated. Members who provided milestones or other professional development feedback after CCC meetings assigned significantly lower mean milestone levels (mean 1.4 points; CI -2.2 to -0.6; P < .001) and were significantly less likely to recommend supervisory responsibility in any setting (OR = 0.23, CrI 0.05-0.83) compared with CCC members who did not. Members recommended less supervisory responsibility when they reviewed more residents (OR = 0.96, 95% CrI 0.94-0.99) and participated in more review cycles (OR = 0.22, 95% CrI 0.07-0.63). CONCLUSIONS: This study explored the association between characteristics of individual CCC member reviews and their summative assessment decisions about residents. Further study is needed to gain deeper understanding of factors influencing CCC members' summative assessment decisions.

Implementation of an Innovative Pediatric Hospital Medicine Education Series.

OBJECTIVE: Limitations on resident duty hours require formal education programs to be high-yield and impactful. Hospital medicine (HM) topics provide the foundation for inpatient pediatric knowledge pertinent to pediatric residents and medical students. Our primary objective was to describe the creation of an innovative pediatric HM curriculum designed to increase learners' medical knowledge and their confidence in communicating with patients and families about these topics; our secondary objective was to evaluate the level of innovation of the conference sessions perceived by the learners. METHODS: A systematic approach was used to develop a curriculum framework incorporating a variety of interactive and engaging educational strategies. Six sessions were studied over the 2012­2013 academic year. The bimonthly sessions were presented during the resident daily conference schedule as a recurring pediatric HM series. Change in learners' medical knowledge and confidence in communicating with families were analyzed presession to postsession by using McNemar's test and the Wilcoxon signed rank test, respectively. Learners rated the level of innovation for each session on a 5-point Likert scale. RESULTS: Content covered during the 6 sessions included bronchiolitis, child abuse, health care systems, meningitis/fever, urinary tract infection, and wheezing. Medical knowledge increased presession to postsession (P < .001), as did confidence in communicating about each topic with families (P < .01). The average rating score for all sessions was highly innovative. CONCLUSIONS: A systematic approach is useful for developing new curricula for pediatric learners. Focusing on high-yield topics and established competencies allows impactful education sessions within the confines of pediatric learners' schedule constraints.

Procedural readiness of pediatric interns: defining novice performance through simulation.

BACKGROUND: Pediatric lumbar puncture (LP) is a common invasive procedure performed by physicians in training. The Association of American Medical Colleges and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education recognize simulation as a tool for deliberate practice and standardized assessment of procedural performance. OBJECTIVE: We sought to perform a detailed review of simulated LP performance to elucidate reasons for pediatric residents' reported 26% failure rate. METHODS: Participants were enrolled in a single 30-minute session between July 2008 and January 2009. Data collected included former experience and training via questionnaire and video review of intern performance of a simulated LP on an infant model. Intern performance was assessed against a list of 10 procedural elements. Acquisition of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), the number of elements performed on the first 2 attempts, and specific types of training/experience were analyzed for associations. RESULTS: All 32 enrolled interns endorsed receiving some previous LP training. Training on a model was infrequent (38%). Interns reported performing a median of 2 LPs prior to enrollment (interquartile range, 2-4). Seven of 31 interns (22%) had yet to perform a live LP. Eleven of 32 interns (34%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 18%-51%) acquired CSF during the first 2 simulated attempts. No specific type of prior training or experience was statistically associated with either the number of procedural elements or successful CSF acquisition (all P > .05). Interns performed a median of 7 of 10 procedural elements (interquartile range, 5.5-8). Early stylet removal was never performed. Complete removal of the stylet with all CSF checks was significantly associated with CSF acquisition (odds ratio, 9; 95% CI 0.98, 84.2). Avoidance of a spinous process upon skin entry was associated with a trend toward increased CSF acquisition (odds ratio, 3.5; 95% CI 0.76, 16.1). CONCLUSION: Despite performing many common procedural elements, pediatric interns generally lack the ability to successfully acquire CSF during a simulated infant LP. Expert performance of an infant LP likely requires complete stylet removal with each check for CSF and early spinous process avoidance. A simulated infant LP allowed assessment of intern procedural performance as well as description of elements critical to successful CSF acquisition.

Decreasing Adverse Events through Night Talks: An Interdisciplinary, Hospital-Based Quality Improvement Project.

BACKGROUND: The majority of medical adverse events are secondary to errors in communication. The Joint Commission (known until 2007 as the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) reports that 70% of sentinel events are the result of communication failures. Review of nonperioperative adverse events at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in 2007 found similar statistics: 57% were related to failure to recognize abnormal vital signs and to communicate or address parents' or nurses' concerns. OBJECTIVE: To increase by 80% the number of days between near misses in pediatric neurosurgical patients because of failure to address abnormal vital signs or parents' or nurses' concerns during the night shift. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Baseline data on near misses from the previous night were collected with the use of a written questionnaire completed the next morning by the interns, patient-care facilitators or charge nurse, and attending physicians. Laminated cards with three standardized questions were created to guide a late-evening review of patients' status by residents, attending physicians, and nurses: the Night Talks discussion. After initiation of Night Talks, data were collected for issues addressed by Night Talks as well as for preventable adverse events. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Number of days between near misses. RESULTS: During a two-month period before the introduction of Night Talks, there was an average of 3.8 days between near misses on neurosurgery patients. After the initiation of Night Talks, days between near misses due to the failure to address abnormal vital signs or parents' or nurses' concerns increased to 201 days, a 5360% change. CONCLUSION: Instituting standardized Night Talks substantially reduced near misses in neurosurgical patients at our institution at night.