The impact of small-group virtual patient simulator training on perceptions of individual learning process and curricular integration: a multicentre cohort study of nursing and medical students.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated rapid changes in medical education to protect students and patients from the risk of infection. Virtual Patient Simulators (VPS) provide a simulated clinical environment in which students can interview and examine a patient, order tests and exams, prioritize interventions, and observe response to therapy, all with minimal risk to themselves and their patients. Like high-fidelity simulators (HFS), VPS are a tool to improve curricular integration. Unlike HFS, VPS require limited infrastructure investment and can be used in low-resource settings. Few studies have examined the impact of VPS training on clinical education. This international, multicenter cohort study was designed to assess the impact of small-group VPS training on individual learning process and curricular integration from the perspective of nursing and medical students. METHODS: We conducted a multi-centre, international cohort study of nursing and medical students. Baseline perceptions of individual learning process and curricular integration were assessed using a 27-item pre-session questionnaire. Students subsequently participated in small-group VPS training sessions lead by a clinical tutor and then completed a 32-item post-session questionnaire, including 25 paired items. Pre- and post-session responses were compared to determine the impact of the small-group VPS experience. RESULTS: Participants included 617 nursing and medical students from 11 institutions in 8 countries. At baseline, nursing students reported greater curricular integration and more clinical and simulation experience than did medical students. After exposure to small-group VPS training, participants reported significant improvements in 5/6 items relating to individual learning process and 7/7 items relating to curricular integration. The impact of the VPS experience was similar amongst nursing and medical students. CONCLUSIONS: In this multi-centre study, perceptions of individual learning process and curricular integration improved after exposure to small-group VPS training. Nursing and medical students showed similar impact. Small-group VPS training is an accessible, low-risk educational strategy that can improve student perceptions of individual learning process and curricular integration.

High-Fidelity Simulation Effects on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Self-Efficacy and Knowledge Retention in Undergraduate Nursing Students: A Two-Group, Experimental, Longitudinal Pilot Study.

ABSTRACT: This pilot study aimed to assess the effects of high-fidelity simulation on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) self-efficacy and knowledge retention compared to case-based learning. A two-group, experimental, longitudinal design was adopted. Fifty-two undergraduate nursing students were invited to participate in the study, which was conducted between March and May 2019. The results show statistically significant differences in favor of the experimental group on both CPR knowledge retention and self-efficacy one month after training. These findings may assist nurse educators to implement high-fidelity simulation in CPR education.

Patient Safety in Anesthesiology: Progress, Challenges, and Prospects.

Anesthesiology is considered a complex medical specialty. Its history has been marked by radical advances and profound transformations, owing to technical and pharmacological developments and innovations in the field, enabling us over the years to improve patient outcomes and perform longer, more complex surgical procedures on more fragile patients. However, anesthesiology has never been safe and free of challenges. Despite the advances made, it still faces risks associated with the practice of anesthesia, for both patients and healthcare professionals, and with some of the specific challenges encountered in low and middle-income countries. In this context, certain actions and initiatives must be carried out collaboratively. In addition, recent technologies and innovations such as simulation, genomics, artificial intelligence, and robotics hold promise for further improving patient safety in anesthesiology and overcoming existing challenges, making it possible to offer safer, more effective, and personalized anesthesia. However, this requires rigorous monitoring of ethical aspects and the reliability of the studies to reap the full benefits of the new technology. This literature review presents the evolution of anesthesiology over time, its current challenges, and its promising future. It underlines the importance of the new technologies and the need to pursue efforts and strengthen research in anesthesiology to overcome the persistent challenges and benefit from the advantages of the latest technology to guarantee safe, high-quality anesthesia with universal access.

Health sciences lifelong learning and professional development in the era of artificial intelligence.

INTRODUCTION: In the field of healthcare, lifelong learning is considered a quality indicator due to its potential to enhance healthcare services and the knowledge and skills of healthcare professionals. The purpose of this research is to investigate and document the attitudes and behavior of healthcare professionals from different healthcare institutions toward lifelong learning using artificial intelligence. THE STUDY ACHIEVES TWO OBJECTIVES: Identifying healthcare professionals' interest in formal lifelong learning and determining how they engage in lifelong learning. Additionally, this study aims to develop a dynamic web platform with several key features including an introduction page, navigation menu, document download form, document table, and download, delete, and resume buttons. METHODOLOGY: The study was conducted from 07/04/2022 to 19/05/2022 and involved a sample of 114 healthcare professionals from various locations in Morocco. A questionnaire comprising three sections (personal information, lifelong learning for personal development, and lifelong learning for professional development) was used as the research instrument. RESULTS: The average age of the participants was 43 years, and 76.8% had more than 11 years of experience in the field. The results indicate a correlation between professional development and lifelong learning among healthcare professionals. The two most important factors driving lifelong learning were identified as the advancement of the healthcare profession and the need to elevate the quality of care. Also, this research objective is to develop a dynamic online platform featuring an introduction page, navigation menu, document download form, document table, and download, delete, and resume buttons. CONCLUSIONS: According to the findings, healthcare professionals consider lifelong learning an ongoing and continuous process essential to their work.

The effects of mindfulness on health profession students' simulation training outcomes: An integrative review.

Health profession students (HPSs) continuously experience psychological issues which can exacerbate cognitive errors and harm emotional well-being. The Healthcare simulation environment is stressful and overwhelming in nature and may impair learning outcomes. Therefore, integrating psychological interventions into simulation-based learning (SBL) instructional design may alleviate students' psychological distress and improve their learning outcomes. OBJECTIVES: to examine the effects of mindfulness on health professions students' SBL outcomes. DESIGN: a literature review, based on Whittemore and Knafl's (2005) updated methodology was used in this study. DATA SOURCES: We investigated PubMed, ERIC, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar to find papers addressing the effects of mindfulness on health professions students' SBL outcomes. We targeted Results: This integrative review suggests that although mindfulness improves SBL outcomes, HPSs still struggle to transfer mindfulness benefits to real clinical practice. CONCLUSION: research on mindfulness in healthcare SBL is in its infancy, thus, further research is needed to prove mindfulness effects on HPSs' SBL outcomes.

Management of Severe COVID-19 in Pregnancy.

The scarcity of data concerning pregnant patients gravely infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) makes their management difficult, as most of the reported cases in the literature present mild pneumonia symptoms. The core problem is laying out evidence on coronavirus's implications on pregnancy and delivery, as well as vertical transmission and neonatal mortality. A healthy 30-year-old pregnant woman, gravida 6, para 4, at 31 weeks of gestation, presented severe pneumonia symptoms promptly complicated with premature rupture of membranes (PROM). A nasopharyngeal swab returned positive for SARS-CoV-2 using reverse transcription polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCR). The parturient underwent a cesarean delivery. This paper is an attempt to outline management of the critical condition of COVID-19 during pregnancy.

A successful use of therapeutic plasma exchange in a fulminant form of acute fatty liver of pregnancy.

Acute fatty liver of pregnancy (AFLP) continues to raise special concerns since its first post-mortem description by Sheehan in 1940. While early diagnosis and expedite delivery are the cornerstone of management, this condition remains fatal for both mother and fetus. Acute fulminant liver failure is the most serious and life-threatening AFLP-related complication and can require liver transplant despite aggressive supportive management. In lieu of transplant, therapeutic plasma exchange (PE) has emerged as a life-saving alternative and has, in few reports, demonstrated efficacy for the reversal of this dangerous condition. Here we present a case report of a patient diagnosed with fulminant liver failure complicating an AFLP and progressed to severe hepatic encephalopathy who was successfully treated with five rounds of plasma exchange.

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia and Cesarean Section: The Anesthesiologist's Point of View.

BACKGROUND: Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative neoplasm related to chromosomal reciprocal translocation t(9;22). Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) such as imatinib have drastically revolutionized the course and the prognosis of this hematologic malignancy. As we know, the association pregnancy-CML is an infrequent situation. Also the use of TKI in pregnant women is unsafe with a lack of alternatives and effective therapeutic options. Thus its cessation during gestation puts those patients at high risk of developing blast crisis characterized by poor outcomes. CASE REPORT: A 37-year-old pregnant woman, gravida 2, para 2, with a previous cesarean section in 2011, presented to the obstetric unit. Her medical past revealed that she is a newly diagnosed patient with CML managed by TKI during her preconception period. Due to the perilous use of TKI during her pregnancy, a switch to interferon-α administration was adopted. But after the completion of 36 weeks of gestation, disease progression (relapse with blast crisis), attested by biological worsening, a white blood cell count = 245000/mm3 with 32% blasts in the peripheral blood, urged the medical team to opt for cesarean delivery. She underwent general endotracheal anesthesia without any perioperative incidents and gave birth to a healthy newborn. Ten days later, the patient was started on TKI. DISCUSSION: Although data on this specific and challenging situation are limited, this case highlights the difficulties encountered by the anesthesiologists when choosing the accurate anesthetic strategy and how important it is to weigh the risks and benefits inherent to each technique. Above all, taking into consideration the possible central nervous system (CNS) contamination by circulating blast cells when performing spinal or epidural approach is primordial. This potential adverse event (CNS blast crisis) is extremely scarce but it is responsible for high rates of morbidity and mortality.