Validating Parallel-Forms Tests for Assessing Anesthesia Resident Knowledge.

We created a serious game to teach first year anesthesiology (CA-1) residents to perform general anesthesia for cesarean delivery. We aimed to investigate resident knowledge gains after playing the game and having received one of 2 modalities of debriefing. We report on the development and validation of scores from parallel test forms for criterion-referenced interpretations of resident knowledge. The test forms were intended for use as pre- and posttests for the experiment. Validation of instruments measuring the study's primary outcome was considered essential for adding rigor to the planned experiment, to be able to trust the study's results. Parallel, multiple-choice test forms development steps included: (1) assessment purpose and population specification; (2) content domain specification and writing/selection of items; (3) content validation by experts of paired items by topic and cognitive level; and (4) empirical validation of scores from the parallel test forms using Classical Test Theory (CTT) techniques. Field testing involved online administration of 52 shuffled items from both test forms to 24 CA-1's, 21 second-year anesthesiology (CA-2) residents, 2 fellows, 1 attending anesthesiologist, and 1 of unknown rank at 3 US institutions. Items from each form yielded near-normal score distributions, with similar medians, ranges, and standard deviations. Evaluations of CTT item difficulty (item p values) and discrimination (D) indices indicated that most items met assumptions of criterion-referenced test design, separating experienced from novice residents. Experienced residents performed better on overall domain scores than novices (P < .05). Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 (KR-20) reliability estimates of both test forms were above the acceptability cut of .70, and parallel forms reliability estimate was high at .86, indicating results were consistent with theoretical expectations. Total scores of parallel test forms demonstrated item-level validity, strong internal consistency and parallel forms reliability, suggesting sufficient robustness for knowledge outcomes assessments of CA-1 residents.

Was COVID-19 a heyday for education? Lessons learned from a COVID-19 "pop-up" simulation developed overnight.

Introduction: To adjust for the COVID-19 pandemic's rapidly changing guidelines and clinical needs, educators turned to simulation to create realistic yet safe environments for drilling and innovating various care strategies. Individually, institutions faced creating a pathway for deploying new behaviors and techniques widely across their populace. Methods: In response to this need, we rapidly developed an interprofessional teaching curriculum for safe intubation techniques and donning/doffing of personal protection equipment to anesthesiology clinicians and technicians. Participants were taught using Roussin's Zone 1 simulation techniques including coaching from interprofessional facilitators. Survey data were collected from participants. Results: Participants' confidence levels increased, with coaching and the use of simulation cited as the most useful elements of the training. Conclusions: We believe COVID-19 catalyzed many educational initiatives, and though teams drew their own roadmaps to create programs, sharing the learning from these endeavors may inform future similar situations. Lessons of stakeholder buy-in, use of multidisciplinary teams, and building a psychologically safe space can promote rapid uptake of new techniques and technologies.

Clinical triggers and vital signs influencing crisis acknowledgment and calls for help by anesthesiologists: A simulation-based observational study.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: In a perioperative emergency, anesthesiologists must acknowledge the unfolding crisis promptly, call for timely assistance, and avert patient harm. We aimed to identify vital signs and qualitative factors prompting crisis acknowledgment and to compare responses between observers and participants in simulation. DESIGN: Prospective, simulation-based, observational study. SETTING: An anesthesia crisis resource management course at a freestanding simulation center. SUBJECTS: Sixty attending anesthesiologists from a variety of practice settings. INTERVENTIONS: In each case, a primary anesthesiologist in charge (PAIC) managed a simulated patient undergoing a uniformly scripted sequence of perioperative anaphylaxis and called for help from another anesthesiologist when a crisis began. Anesthesiologist observers (AOs) viewed the case separately and recorded times of crisis onset. MEASUREMENTS: Simulation footage was reviewed by investigators for patient vital signs and participant behaviors at times of crisis acknowledgment, with the call for help as an explicit proxy for PAIC crisis acknowledgment. These factors were categorized, and group-level data were compared. RESULTS: Nineteen PAICs and 41 AOs were included. Clinicians acknowledged crises around a mean arterial pressure (MAP) of 65 mmHg and oxygen saturation of 94% as anaphylactic shock progressed. PAICs acknowledged crises at a higher respiratory rate than AOs (20 vs. 18 breaths/min, p = 0.038). Other vitals and timing of crisis acknowledgment did not differ between PAICs and AOs. Nearly half of all participants (45%) identified crises at MAP <65 mmHg. Timing of crisis acknowledgment varied widely (range: 421 s). CONCLUSIONS: Despite overall heterogeneity in clinical performance, anesthesiologists acknowledged crises per standard definitions of hypotension. Thresholds for crisis acknowledgment did not significantly differ between PAICs and AOs, suggesting minimal effect from active care responsibility. Many indicated crises at MAP <65 mmHg or after significant deterioration, risking failure-to-rescue events. We suggest that crisis management instruction should address triggers for requesting help.

Perceptions and goals of preoperative planning conversations between anesthesiology residents and attending physicians.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate anesthesiology resident and attending perceptions of preoperative planning conversations (POPCs) and to generate understanding for improving the educational and clinical value of this practice. DESIGN: cross-sectional study. SETTING: two large Northeastern US academic residency training programs. PARTICIPANTS: clinically practicing anesthesiology residents and attendings. INTERVENTIONS: An electronic survey was administered to 303 anesthesia attendings and 168 anesthesia residents across two academic institutions between June and July 2014. MEASUREMENTS: Survey questions addressing phone call frequency and duration, clinical value, educational value and intended purpose of POPC were administered to both groups. Chi-squared tests were used to evaluate differences in responses between groups, with p < 0.05 as statistically significant. MAIN RESULTS: Responses were collected from 93 attending physicians (31%) and 80 trainee physicians (48%) for an overall response rate of 37%. 99% of residents reported paging their attendings to engage in the POPC the evening prior to all operations and 95% of trainees reported almost always receiving a call back from the attending. Trainees overwhelmingly reported attendings would believe they were unprofessional or negligent if they did not initiate a POPC (73% vs 14%, chi-square = 60.9, p < 0.001). Attendings were much more likely to view the POPC as a very important tool to discuss perioperative events (60% vs 16%, chi-square = 37.3, p < 0.001) and necessary for the majority or every case (59% vs. 31%, chi-square = 13.5, p < 0.001). The majority of attendings and trainees did not find the POPC to be a very important educational tool in terms of assessing trainee knowledge base (14% vs. 6%, chi-square = 2.76, p = 0.097), discussing teaching opportunities (26% vs. 9%, chi-square = 8.5, p = 0.004), or establishing rapport (24% vs. 7% trainees, chi-square = 8.3, p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: Significant discrepancies exist between how anesthesia attendings and residents perceive the purpose of the POPC, with trainees less likely to view the POPC as having clinical value and neither group perceiving the conversation as a very useful educational tool. The results highlight the need to reexamine the value of the daily POPC as a deliberate educational practice to meet expectations of both trainees and attendings.

Strategy to Develop a Common Simulation Training Program: Illustration with Anesthesia and Intensive Care Residency in France.

Phenomenon: The urgency of having fair and trustworthy competency-based assessment in medical training is growing. Simulation is increasingly recognized as a potent method for building and assessing applied competencies. The growing use of simulation and its application in summative assessment calls for comprehensive and rigorously designed programs. Defining the current baseline of what is available and feasible is a crucial first step. This paper uses anesthesia and intensive care (AIC) in France as a case study in how to document this baseline. Approach: An IRB-approved, online anonymous closed survey was submitted to AIC residency program directors and AIC simulation program directors in France from January to February 2021. The researcher-developed survey consisted of 65 questions across five sections: centers' characteristics, curricular characteristics, courses' characteristics, instructors' characteristics, and simulation perceptions and perspectives. Findings: The participation rate was 31/31 (100%) with 29 centers affiliated with a university hospital. All centers had AIC simulation activities. Resident training was structured in 94% of centers. Simulation uses were training (100%), research and development (61%), procedural or organizational testing (42%), and summative assessment (13%). Interprofessional full-scale simulation training existed in 90% of centers. Procedural training on simulators prior to clinical patients' care was performed "always" in 16%, "most often" in 45%, "sometimes" in 29% and "rarely" or "not" in 10% of centers. Simulated patients were used in 61% of centers. Main themes were identified for procedural skills, full-scale and simulated patient simulation training. Simulation activity was perceived as increasing in 68% of centers. Centers expressed a desire to participate in developing and using a national common AIC simulation program. Insights: Based on our findings in AIC, we demonstrated a baseline description of nationwide simulation activities. We now have a clearer perspective on a decentralized approach in which individual institutions or regional consortia conduct simulation for a discipline in a relatively homogeneous way, suggesting the feasibility for national guidelines. This approach provides useful clues for AIC and other disciplines to develop a comprehensive and meaningful program matching existing expectations and closing the identified gaps.

Simulation-based summative assessment in healthcare: an overview of key principles for practice.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare curricula need summative assessments relevant to and representative of clinical situations to best select and train learners. Simulation provides multiple benefits with a growing literature base proving its utility for training in a formative context. Advancing to the next step, "the use of simulation for summative assessment" requires rigorous and evidence-based development because any summative assessment is high stakes for participants, trainers, and programs. The first step of this process is to identify the baseline from which we can start. METHODS: First, using a modified nominal group technique, a task force of 34 panelists defined topics to clarify the why, how, what, when, and who for using simulation-based summative assessment (SBSA). Second, each topic was explored by a group of panelists based on state-of-the-art literature reviews technique with a snowball method to identify further references. Our goal was to identify current knowledge and potential recommendations for future directions. Results were cross-checked among groups and reviewed by an independent expert committee. RESULTS: Seven topics were selected by the task force: "What can be assessed in simulation?", "Assessment tools for SBSA", "Consequences of undergoing the SBSA process", "Scenarios for SBSA", "Debriefing, video, and research for SBSA", "Trainers for SBSA", and "Implementation of SBSA in healthcare". Together, these seven explorations provide an overview of what is known and can be done with relative certainty, and what is unknown and probably needs further investigation. Based on this work, we highlighted the trustworthiness of different summative assessment-related conclusions, the remaining important problems and questions, and their consequences for participants and institutions of how SBSA is conducted. CONCLUSION: Our results identified among the seven topics one area with robust evidence in the literature ("What can be assessed in simulation?"), three areas with evidence that require guidance by expert opinion ("Assessment tools for SBSA", "Scenarios for SBSA", "Implementation of SBSA in healthcare"), and three areas with weak or emerging evidence ("Consequences of undergoing the SBSA process", "Debriefing for SBSA", "Trainers for SBSA"). Using SBSA holds much promise, with increasing demand for this application. Due to the important stakes involved, it must be rigorously conducted and supervised. Guidelines for good practice should be formalized to help with conduct and implementation. We believe this baseline can direct future investigation and the development of guidelines.

Postpartum hemorrhage: The role of simulation.

Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) persists as a leading cause of maternal death worldwide, and in the United States, most maternal deaths due to hemorrhage are deemed preventable. While essential preparations for hemorrhage include protocols and checklists, implementation science has revealed that it is not enough to merely introduce these tools into units. Simulation affords safe opportunities for practice and produces reliable behavior change, and it does not always need to be highly expensive and resource consuming. We review how simulation can be applied to address a unit's vulnerabilities in identifying, managing, and resolving PPH, as well as considerations for crafting a comprehensive simulation program for your unit.

Usability of a perioperative medication-related clinical decision support software application: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: We developed a comprehensive, medication-related clinical decision support (CDS) software prototype for use in the operating room. The purpose of this study was to compare the usability of the CDS software to the current standard electronic health record (EHR) medication administration and documentation workflow. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The primary outcome was the time taken to complete all simulation tasks. Secondary outcomes were the total number of mouse clicks and the total distance traveled on the screen in pixels. Forty participants were randomized and assigned to complete 7 simulation tasks in 1 of 2 groups: (1) the CDS group (n = 20), who completed tasks using the CDS and (2) the Control group (n = 20), who completed tasks using the standard medication workflow with retrospective manual documentation in our anesthesia information management system. Blinding was not possible. We video- and audio-recorded the participants to capture quantitative data (time on task, mouse clicks, and pixels traveled on the screen) and qualitative data (think-aloud verbalization). RESULTS: The CDS group mean total task time (402.2 ± 85.9 s) was less than the Control group (509.8 ± 103.6 s), with a mean difference of 107.6 s (95% confidence interval [CI], 60.5-179.5 s, P < .001). The CDS group used fewer mouse clicks (26.4 ± 4.5 clicks) than the Control group (56.0 ± 15.0 clicks) with a mean difference of 29.6 clicks (95% CI, 23.2-37.6, P < .001). The CDS group had fewer pixels traveled on the computer monitor (59.5 ± 20.0 thousand pixels) than the Control group (109.3 ± 40.8 thousand pixels) with a mean difference of 49.8 thousand pixels (95% CI, 33.0-73.7, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The perioperative medication-related CDS software prototype substantially outperformed standard EHR workflow by decreasing task time and improving efficiency and quality of care in a simulation setting.

Teaming: learning, competing, and innovating in the world of reproductive medicine.

Healthcare teams must be deliberately cultivated to reach their full potential. Shifting focus from individual performance to a team's collective competence allows for targeted and evidence-based interventions that support teamwork and improve patient outcomes. We reviewed essential concepts drawn from team science and explored the practical applications of teaming. Reproductive endocrinology and infertility healthcare providers play a pivotal role by teaching, modeling, and fostering teaming attitudes and behaviors. Through teaming, we can maximize our teams' ability to learn, innovate, compete with other teams, and thrive in today's healthcare environment.

Setting the stage for speaking up: psychological safety and directing care in acute care collaboration.

Managing a safe and efficient anaesthetic induction within a team involves the challenge of when, if, and how to surface, discuss, and implement the best plan on how to proceed. The Lemke and colleagues study in this issue of the British Journal of Anaesthesia is a unique view into real-world conversations that naturally occur in anaesthesia teams in moments of high task and cognitive load, such as induction of anaesthesia. The study spotlights important small moments of physician, nurse, and trainee team coordination. It illuminates key patterns of conversation in naturally occurring anaesthesia teams, and raises important questions about what the speaking up standard should be and the psychological safety-shaping role consultants play in setting the norms for speaking up.

Decision Making in Obstetric Anesthesia.

Obstetric anesthesiologists provide care under unique conditions, where frequently unscheduled cases demand flexibility in thinking and acting. And although most obstetric patients may be healthy, they can quickly deteriorate, necessitating rapid team diagnostic and treatment interventions. Examining decision making is a critical step in improving care to these patients. This article reviews evidence-based models of decision making both with individuals and with teams, and presents strategies to improve decision making under any circumstance.

First steps towards international competency goals for residency training: a qualitative comparison of 3 regional standards in anesthesiology.

BACKGROUND: Competency-based medical education (CBME) has revolutionized approaches to training by making expectations more concrete, visible, and relevant for trainees. Designing, applying, and updating CBME requirements challenges residency programs, which must address many aspects of training simultaneously. This challenge also exists for educational regulatory bodies in creating and adjusting national competencies to standardize training expectations. We propose that an international approach for mapping residency training requirements may provide a baseline for assessing commonalities and differences. This approach allows us to take our first steps towards creating international competency goals to enhance sharing of best practices in education and clinical work. METHODS: We chose anesthesiology residency training as our example discipline. Using two rounds of content analysis, we qualitatively compared published anesthesiology residency competencies for the European Union (The European Training Requirement), United States (ACGME Milestones), and Canada (CanMEDS Competence By Design), focusing on similarities and differences in representation (round one) and emphasis (round two) to generate hypotheses on practical solutions regarding international educational standards. RESULTS: We mapped the similarities and discrepancies between the three repositories. Round one revealed that 93% of competencies were common between the three repositories. Major differences between European Training Requirement, US Milestones, and Competence by Design competencies involved critical emergency medicine. Round two showed that over 30% of competencies were emphasized equally, with notable exceptions that European Training Requirement emphasized Anaesthesia Non-Technical Skills, Competence by Design highlighted more granular competencies within specific anesthesiology situations, and US Milestones emphasized professionalism and behavioral practices. CONCLUSIONS: This qualitative comparison has identified commonalities and differences in anesthesiology training which may facilitate sharing broader perspectives on diverse high-quality educational, clinical, and research practices to enhance innovative approaches. Determining these overlaps in residency training can prompt international educational societies responsible for creating competencies to collaborate to design future training programs. This approach may be considered as a feasible method to build an international core of residency competency requirements for other disciplines.

The Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology Coronavirus Disease 2019 Registry: An Analysis of Outcomes Among Pregnant Women Delivering During the Initial Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 Outbreak in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Early reports associating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection with adverse pregnancy outcomes were biased by including only women with severe disease without controls. The Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) registry was created to compare peripartum outcomes and anesthetic utilization in women with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection delivering at institutions with widespread testing. METHODS: Deliveries from 14 US medical centers, from March 19 to May 31, 2020, were included. Peripartum infection was defined as a positive SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction test within 14 days of delivery. Consecutive SARS-CoV-2-infected patients with randomly selected control patients were sampled (1:2 ratio) with controls delivering during the same day without a positive test. Outcomes were obstetric (eg, delivery mode, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and delivery <37 weeks), an adverse neonatal outcome composite measure (primary), and anesthetic utilization (eg, neuraxial labor analgesia and anesthesia). Outcomes were analyzed using generalized estimating equations to account for clustering within centers. Sensitivity analyses compared symptomatic and asymptomatic patients to controls. RESULTS: One thousand four hundred fifty four peripartum women were included: 490 with SARS-CoV-2 infection (176 [35.9%] symptomatic) and 964 were controls. SARS-CoV-2 patients were slightly younger, more likely nonnulliparous, nonwhite, and Hispanic than controls. They were more likely to have diabetes, obesity, or cardiac disease and less likely to have autoimmune disease. After adjustment for confounders, individuals experiencing SARS-CoV-2 infection exhibited an increased risk for delivery <37 weeks of gestation compared to controls, 73 (14.8%) vs 98 (10.2%) (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-2.09). Effect estimates for other obstetric outcomes and the neonatal composite outcome measure were not meaningfully different between SARS-CoV-2 patients versus controls. In sensitivity analyses, compared to controls, symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 patients exhibited increases in cesarean delivery (aOR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.09-2.27), postpartum length of stay (aOR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.18-2.60), and delivery <37 weeks of gestation (aOR, 2.08; 95% CI, 1.29-3.36). These adverse outcomes were not found in asymptomatic women versus controls. SARS-CoV-2 patients (asymptomatic and symptomatic) were less likely to receive neuraxial labor analgesia (aOR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.35-0.75) and more likely to receive general anesthesia for cesarean delivery (aOR, 3.69; 95% CI, 1.40-9.74) due to maternal respiratory failure. CONCLUSIONS: In this large, multicenter US cohort study of women with and without peripartum SARS-CoV-2 infection, differences in obstetric and neonatal outcomes seem to be mostly driven by symptomatic patients. Lower utilization of neuraxial analgesia in laboring patients with asymptomatic or symptomatic infection compared to patients without infection requires further investigation.

Racial/Ethnic Inequities in Pregnancy-Related Morbidity and Mortality.

Racism in America has deep roots that impact maternal health, particularly through pervasive inequities among Black women as compared with White, although other racial and ethnic groups also suffer. Health care providers caring for pregnant women are optimally positioned to maintain vigilance for these disparities in maternal care, and to intervene with their diverse skillsets and knowledge. By increasing awareness of how structural racism drives inequities in health, these providers can encourage hospitals and practices to develop and implement national bundles for patient safety, and use bias training and team-based training practices aimed at improving care for racially diverse mothers.

Racial Differences in Pregnancy-Related Morbidity and Mortality.

Racism in the United States has deep roots that affect maternal health, particularly through pervasive inequalities among black women compared with white. Anesthesiologists are optimally positioned to maintain vigilance for these disparities in maternal care, and to intervene with their unique acute critical care skills and knowledge. As leaders in patient safety, anesthesiologists should drive hospitals and practices to develop and implement national bundles for patient safety, as well as using team-based training practices designed to improve hospitals that care for racially diverse mothers.

Effects of Gender and Race/Ethnicity on Perioperative Team Performance.

We judge each other every day using demographic characteristics (such as gender and race/ethnicity), and these social identities shape our lives in profound ways. The impacts of demographic diversity in perioperative teams are poorly understood, and mixed results are reported in other team-based work settings. Drawing from decades' worth of organizational behavior literature, the authors propose a model of critical factors related to interplays between diversity, communication, and conflict, all which take place in a hierarchical environment influenced by power differences. Evidence-based recommendations are provided, aimed at maximizing benefits of diversity in perioperative teams while minimizing negative consequences.

Challenging gender stereotypes and advancing inclusive leadership in the operating theatre.

Modern healthcare is delivered by interprofessional teams, and good leadership of these teams is integral to safe patient care. Good leadership in the operating theatre has traditionally been considered as authoritative, confident and directive, and stereotypically associated with men. We argue that this may not be the best model for team-based patient care and promote the concept of inclusive leadership as a valid alternative. Inclusive leadership encourages all team members to contribute to decision-making, thus engendering more team cohesion, information sharing and speaking up, and ultimately enhancing team effectiveness. However, the relational behaviours associated with inclusive leadership are stereotypically associated with women and may not in fact be recognised as leadership. In this article we provide evidence on the advantages of inclusive leadership over authoritative leadership and explore gender stereotypes and obstacles that limit the recognition of inclusive leadership. We propose that operating teams rise above gender stereotypes of leadership. Inclusive leadership can elicit maximum performance of every team member, thus realising the full potential of interprofessional healthcare teams to provide the best care for patients.