Development of an integrated milestone assessment tool across multiple early-adopter programs for breaking bad news: a pilot project.

BACKGROUND: The transition of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to milestone assessment creates opportunities for collaboration and shared assessments across graduate medical programs. Breaking bad news is an essential communication skill that is a common milestone across almost every medical specialty. The purpose of this study was to develop and pilot an integrated milestone assessment (IMA) tool for breaking bad news using ACGME milestone criteria and to compare the IMA tool with the existing SPIKES protocol. METHODS: The IMA tool was created using sub-anchors in professionalism and interpersonal communication skills that are applicable to every specialty and to the ability to break bad news. Two cases of breaking bad news, designed to be "easy" and "intermediate" in difficulty, were used to assess basic skills in breaking bad news in first-year medical residents from six residency specialties. Eight standardized patients were trained to portray the cases in sessions held in November 2013 and May 2014. Standardized patients completed an assessment checklist to evaluate each resident's performance in breaking bad news based on their use of the SPIKES protocol and IMA tool. Residents answered post-encounter questions about their training and comfort in breaking bad news. The association between SPIKES and IMA scores was investigated by simple linear regression models and Spearman rank correlations. RESULTS: There were 136 eligible medical residents: 108 (79.4%) participated in the first session and 97 (71.3%) participated in the second session, with 96 (70.6%) residents participating in both sessions. Overall, we were able to identify residents that performed at both extremes of the assessment criteria using the integrated milestone assessment (IMA) and the SPIKES protocol. Interestingly, residents rated themselves below "comfortable" on average. CONCLUSION: We developed an integrated milestone assessment (IMA) that was better than the SPIKES protocol at assessing the skill of breaking bad news. This collaborative assessment tool can be used as supplement tool in the era of milestone transformation. We aim assess our tool in other specialties and institutions, as well as assess other shared milestones across specialties.

Strategies for recruiting underrepresented in medicine and sexual and gender minority students to emergency medicine.

Background: Despite having well-described benefits, diversifying the physician workforce has been an ongoing challenge. Within emergency medicine (EM), multiple professional organizations have identified expanding diversity and inclusion as top priorities. The following is a description of an interactive session held at the SAEM annual meeting addressing recruitment strategies for underrepresented in medicine (URiM) and sexual and gender minority (SGM) students into EM. Methods: During the session, the authors provided an overview of the current state of diversity in EM. In the small-group portion of the session, a facilitator helped characterize the challenges programs face in recruiting URiM and SGM students. These challenges were described during three distinct phases of the recruitment process: (1) preinterview, (2) interview day, and (3) postinterview. Results: Our facilitated small-group session allowed for discussing the challenges faced by various programs in recruiting a diverse group of trainees. Common challenges in the preinterview and interview day included messaging and visibility as well as funding and support. Postinterview challenges included communication and the ranking process. Through this exercise, we were able to collaboratively share ideas on tangible solutions that programs may use to overcome their specific challenges. Conclusions: Given the importance of intentionality in diversifying the physician workforce, the authors describe successful strategies implemented within one residency program and those shared by session participants to overcome recruitment challenges.

Perceptions of Communication Between Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine physicians.

As part of an institutional effort to develop an atmosphere of communication and encourage mutual appreciation of respective viewpoints, we used a cross-sectional survey to investigate the perceptions of emergency (EM) and internal medicine (IM) residents and faculty, particularly, their attitudes about collaboration, mutual respect, and mistreatment. This cross-sectional survey was administered to the EM and IM faculty and residents of a county, academic hospital with a Level 1 Trauma Center to evaluate each specialty's current perception of professional behavior and observations of unprofessional behavior in order to identify areas for improvement. The survey items were answered using a 5-point Likert scale and was analyzed using the unpaired t-test. A total of 68 residents and faculty completed the survey, 32 (59.4% residents) from EM and 36 (94.4% residents) from IM. Among all EM and IM clinicians, 48.6% felt that there was a culture of clinical collaboration. Approximately half of the respondents (51.5%) felt that the state of professionalism between the two departments was below that of other departments. About 10% (11.8%) of all respondents reported experiencing unprofessional behaviors from the other department at least once a month. Challenges identified by EM faculty and residents included time to consult, recommendations, and disposition. Challenges identified by IM included difficulty contacting EM providers and lack of communication regarding patient's clinical status changes. Both specialties emphasized the importance of improved patient care transitional processes. This study is an important first look at the prevalence of negative attitudes and misperceptions between EM and IM providers. These perspectives can occur due to breakdown of communication and differing expectations. Such asynchronies can cause a toxic workplace environment, diminished performance, and poor patient outcomes.

Let's Escape Didactics: Virtual Escape Room as a Didactic Modality in Residency.

Audience: The virtual escape room is a didactic activity for emergency medicine residents (interns, junior residents, senior residents). Introduction: Residency programs are employing a wide variety of active learning techniques to engage their learners, including large-group discussion, small-group activities, team-based learning, gamification, problem-based learning, role-playing and case studies. In recent years, educators have drawn their attention to educational escape rooms, a new type of learning activity that utilizes collaborative learning activities to foster creating thinking, communication, teamwork and leadership.1-3 There have been a number of cases in medicine, 4,5 but there have been limited works published on the use of virtual educational escape rooms in residency education.Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic has made participation in an escape room more difficult. In lieu of social distancing during the COVID pandemic, participation in a virtual escape room is an effective and flexible learning modality for resident didactics that appears to promote participant satisfaction, competency, learning, and engagement. Educational Objectives: By the end of the activity, learners should be able to:Identify the hazardous chemicals associated with house firesClassify burn injury according to depth, extent and severity based on established standardsRecall the actions to take in response to fire emergencies (R.A.C.E. and P.A.S.S. acronyms)Recall key laboratory features of cyanide and carbon monoxide poisoningsIdentify appropriate management strategies for smoke inhalation injuriesRecite the treatment for cyanide and carbon monoxide poisoningsDescribe the management of the burn injuriesCommunicate and collaborate as a team to arrive at solutions of problemsDisplay task-switching and leadership skills during exerciseEvaluate virtual escape room experience. Educational Methods: Emergent care of burns, a popular and shared topic in both Emergency Medicine and Family Medicine literature, was chosen and educational objectives were developed. The website Deck.Toys was utilized to formulate the escape room along with puzzles around the educational objectives. Students congregated remotely on Zoom, and after instructions, were separated into teams to solve content-specific puzzles in order to escape the room. Teams which solve all the puzzles in the allotted time were considered to have successfully escaped the room. After the allotted time, the faculty led debriefing, and topic discussion occurred. Research Methods: Sixty-three participants composed of residents (24 emergency [EM], 29 family medicine [FM], 4 combined emergency and family medicine [EM/FM]), advanced practice practitioner trainees (2 EM), and faculty member participants (4 FMP) partook in the virtual escape room experience. At the end of the activity, a 17-item survey using Likert-scale questions was embedded in order to obtain feedback regarding satisfaction, engagement, learning, and medical competency in communication, collaboration, task-switching, and leadership skills. Results: Eighteen out of 63 participants filled out the survey. This was the first virtual escape room experience for 94% of the respondents. A majority (88.9%) of respondents enjoyed the virtual escape room, finding it fun, interesting, engaging, and interactive. None of the respondents preferred traditional didactics over the virtual escape room activity, and 72% were either just as or equally as satisfied with virtual compared to in-person escape rooms. Nearly all respondents agreed that the activity encouraged collaboration, communication skills, task-switching, and leadership skills (94.4%, 88.9%, 72.2%, 72.2%, respectively). Discussion: Participation in a virtual escape room is an effective and flexible learning modality for resident didactics that appears to promote learner satisfaction and engagement. The escape room also promoted important competencies encouraged during residency, such as interpersonal and communication skills and practice-based learning and improvement, and is an effective addition to virtual learning tools. Topics: Small group activity, team-building exercise, remote learning, virtual learning, educational games, gamification, medical education, escape room, millennials, student engagement, adult learning theory, emergency medicine residents, family medicine residents, chemicals in house fires, smoke inhalation injuries, burn classification, burn injury management, carbon monoxide poisoning, cyanide poisoning, R.A.C.E. acronym, P.A.S.S. acronym, fluid resuscitation in burn patients, burn referrals.

High prevalence of medication non-adherence in a sample of community-dwelling older adults with adult protective services-validated self-neglect.

BACKGROUND: Medication non-adherence can exacerbate disease severity, leading to impairments that interfere with self-care activities in older adults, and, ultimately, death. Elder self-neglect is the most common report to Adult Protective Services (APS) across the USA and is a significant risk factor for early mortality. These individuals often suffer from multiple comorbid diseases that require careful management, but for various reasons they are unwilling or unable to provide themselves with the self-care resources necessary for maintaining health and safety. No studies have assessed whether medication adherence is associated with elder self-neglect. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess and describe medication adherence in this population, as well as evaluate associations between medication adherence and cognitive impairment, depression, physical function, and abilities to perform basic and instrumental activities of daily living (BADLs and IADLs). METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 100 community-dwelling adults 65 years of age and older with APS-substantiated elder self-neglect were assessed. In-home comprehensive geriatric assessments (CGAs) were completed and included medication reviews. Information on each medication, including the amount taken from the date dispensed, was collected and used to determine adherence. The criteria for non-adherence were taking <80 or >110 % of at least one medication. The sample was also split into groups of low adherence (≤29 %), moderate adherence (29-86 %) and high adherence (≥86 %). Scores on the CGA measures Mini-Mental State Examination, Geriatric Depression Scale, Physical Performance Test (PPT) and Kohlman Evaluation of Living Skills were assessed to determine whether cognitive impairment, depression, physical function, and/or ability to perform BADLs and IADLs were associated with non-adherence or low, moderate or high levels of adherence. RESULTS: Twenty-five per cent of the sample was taking more than seven medications daily. The average rate of adherence was 59 %. Only eight participants (10 %) were adherent to their entire medication regimen, and thus, 90 % were considered non-adherent to at least one medication. The mean number of medications to which individuals were non-adherent was 3.4. The cognitive impairment, depression, physical function and BADL/IADL measures were not statistically associated with medication non-adherence using the cut-points of <80 or >110 %. However, when split into tertiles, the lowest medication adherence level (≤29 %) was significantly associated with a greater number of medications being consumed and lower objective physical function levels as measured by the PPT. CONCLUSIONS: Medication non-adherence is a very prevalent problem among older adults who are self-neglecting, and higher non-adherence levels were associated with the number of medications being consumed as well as lower physical function. Physicians who find high rates of medication non-adherence in their patients should consider barriers to adherence, including a large number of medications, lower physical function and the possibility of elder self-neglect. Future efforts should focus on studying the underlying reasons for medication non-adherence in larger samples of older adults who are self-neglecting. This would facilitate the development of interventions to reduce medication non-adherence in this population.