Twitter as a tool to enhance student engagement during an interprofessional patient safety course.

Twitter and other social media forums are gaining popularity in both the academic and conference arenas as tools to increase participant engagement, attention and interaction. While Twitter has been used successfully to engage college students, it has not been explored for use in an interprofessional curriculum. We sought to explore it as a method to foster student engagement. During a weeklong interprofessional patient safety course we invited students and faculty to participate in a Twitter conversation. It was found that this form of social media successfully captured a "behind the scenes" conversation and the experiences of the students which would have not been otherwise captured. This information is guiding future interprofessional educational programming in both the medical and nursing schools.

Findings from a human roles terminology survey: consensus or chaos?

Background: Terminology describing humans' roles in simulation varies widely. Inconsistent nomenclature is problematic because it inhibits use of a common language, impacting development of a cohesive body of knowledge. Methods: A literature search was completed to identify terms used to describe roles played by humans in simulation-based education. Based on these findings, a survey was created to explore the terminology used by simulation educators and researchers to describe human roles in simulation and the perceived need for a consistent nomenclature. Results: Results demonstrated wide variability in terminology, including terms such as standardised patient, simulated patient, simulated participants, confederate, embedded actor and scenario role player. Conclusion: Creation of a cohesive body of knowledge for human roles in simulation requires use of common terminology, yet findings suggest a complex landscape of terminology. Building consensus on the terminology describing human roles in simulation can clarify understanding of best practice and allow for advancement in the research and state of the science in simulation-based education.

Reflections on Career Pathways of Simulation-Focused Experts in the Field.

STATEMENT: This article presents reflections of career pathways of simulation researchers as well as a discussion of the themes found in the stories presented. It is the intent of the authors to present and foster a discussion around the ways in which we as a simulation community wish to promote recognition of scholarship among simulation researchers and help support newcomers find success as simulation researchers in academia. We also present recommendations for those considering entering the field based on tactics that were successful and not successful among the scholars who shared their stories.

Impact of Simulation-Enhanced Pharmacology Education in Prelicensure Nursing Education.

Student and novice nurses are susceptible to committing medication errors related to lack of experience. To address medication safety, a quasi-experimental design (N = 120) was used to test the effect of adding simulation to an undergraduate nursing pharmacology course on students' confidence and competence, medication adverse events, and observed medication administration practices. Students who received simulation-enhanced pharmacology demonstrated important improvements in medication administration safety. Implementing simulation in nursing pharmacology curriculum is consistent with recommendations to implement Quality and Safety Education for Nurses competencies into nursing education.

Interprofessional Simulation Olympics as a platform to assess team work knowledge acquisition.

Introduction: Several years ago an on-stage competition called SimWars was introduced to the simulation community. This concept was adopted into a patient safety course as a way to further engage students and named Sim Olympics. We sought to evaluate it as a platform for assessment of learning in students who participated as audience members. Methods: A non-equivalent groups design was used to assess whether students could be taught to recognise features of effective teamwork, including a pair of expert raters. One-way repeated measures analysis of variance was used to compare students' attitudes toward interprofessional education (IPE) education, teamwork and simulation, before and after the course. Results: Student scores compared to expert scores showed good agreement. For team 1 there were no statistical differences noted (M=19.58, SD=4.34 given by the students, M=17.50, SD=2.12 given by the experts), t (192)=1.26, p=0.264. There was also no difference for team 2 (M=15.173, SD=5.52 given by the students, M=19.50, SD=3.53 given by the experts), t (173)=0.863, p=0.354. A premeasure and postmeasure of students' attitudes towards IPE education, teamwork and simulation, also showed significant time effect, p<0.001. Conclusions: Medical and nursing students were able to demonstrate their learning of teamwork dynamics by discerning differences between great teamwork and good teamwork as proficiently as seasoned experts. Findings of this study may further support the use of observation as a method to evaluate learning.

Filling the void: defining invasive bedside procedural competency for internal medicine residents.

BACKGROUND: Residents perform invasive bedside procedures in most training programs. To date, there is no universal approach for determining competency and ensuring quality and safety of care. OBJECTIVE: We developed and implemented an assessment of central venous catheter insertion competency for internal medicine and internal medicine-pediatrics residents, using measurements for knowledge, skill, and attitude and linking them to procedural outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a cohort study of a 4-week, resident-run procedure service from July 2007 through June 2011 at a large academic medical center. Knowledge was assessed by using a written test, technical skill by using a checklist, and attitude by self- and supervisor assessments of residents' confidence and capability. Competence was defined as (1) a minimum written test score (70%); (2) a perfect checklist score; (3) a resident's self-assessed confidence and capability scores of 4 or 5 of 5; and (4) faculty rating of the resident's confidence and capability as 5 of 5. A composite success rate was based on procedural outcomes (eg, completed procedures, less than 3 forward needle passes, and complication rate) and was compared to the checklist scores. RESULTS: A total of 148 internal medicine and medicine-pediatrics residents inserted 639 catheters, and 53 (36%) achieved competence by the end of 4 weeks. Residents judged to be competent by checklist scores had a higher composite success rate than those deemed not competent. CONCLUSIONS: Our multi-factorial criteria used to define central venous catheter insertion competency effectively discriminated between residents judged to be competent and those judged not competent, using data from procedural outcomes.