Innovative Use of Cadavers in Perioperative Nursing Orientation.

The Periop 101 program administrator at a US Navy medical center worked with personnel in the facility's simulation and bioskills laboratories to develop an innovative perioperative nurse orientation curriculum that included the use of human cadavers during simulation activities. Participants were able to practice common perioperative nursing skills (eg, surgical skin antisepsis) on human cadavers rather than simulation manikins. The orientation program comprises two three-month phases. Participants were evaluated twice during phase 1: at the six-week mark and again six weeks later at the end of the phase. Using the Lasater Clinical Judgment Rubric, the administrator scored participants on their clinical judgment skills; results showed that mean scores increased for all learners between the two evaluation sessions. Practicing skills in a safe environment allows new staff members to learn without fear of causing accidental patient harm, and the additional use of cadavers further increased simulation fidelity and learner satisfaction.

An Innovative Simulation Curriculum to Train General Surgery Residents and Medical Students on Four Commonly Encountered Obstetric and Gynecologic Procedures.

INTRODUCTION: Lack of obstetric and gynecologic (OBGYN) procedure exposure during general surgery residency was recognized as a training gap for military general surgery residents by U.S. Navy trauma and general surgeons serving as simulation leads for the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth general surgery resident program. Program faculty requested the authors develop and implement a recurring simulation curriculum to address this training gap. The primary goal of the simulation curriculum was to increase exposure to and confidence in performing four commonly encountered OBGYN procedures in a deployed setting: spontaneous vaginal delivery (SVD), Bartholin's cyst incision and drainage with Word catheter placement, cesarean delivery, and total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH). We hypothesized that trainees exposed to the new simulation curriculum would demonstrate an increase in knowledge and confidence in these four commonly encountered OBGYN procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study utilized a pre- and postdesign to determine the efficacy of a newly developed simulation curriculum as measured by participants' knowledge and confidence levels. The annual curriculum was 4 hours in duration and included a targeted lecture followed by the administration of the four OBGYN simulation skills stations: SVD, Bartholin's, cesarean delivery, and total abdominal hysterectomy. Proctors for the simulation stations consisted of OBGYN teaching faculty who had at least 5 years of clinical teaching experience and were experienced simulation instructors. Precourse and postcourse knowledge and confidence were self-rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The learners rated the course using the Simulation Design Scale. Likert scale data were analyzed using the paired Wilcoxon rank sum test. Descriptive statistics were reported for the Simulation Design Scale. P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. This project was classified as nonhuman subjects' research by the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth Institutional Review Board. RESULTS: Over the 2 years since curriculum implementation, 34 trainees participated in the curriculum; no trainees have had the curriculum twice. All trainees confirmed training gaps on baseline self-assessment of knowledge and confidence of all four OBGYN procedures with the most confidence reported for SVD (2.83 mean). Self-rated knowledge and confidence levels improved significantly in all four of the simulated procedures for all 34 participants (P < 0.001). Postcurricular surveys (82% response rate, 28/34) indicated a high satisfaction with all areas of the simulation training (4.74/5.0). CONCLUSIONS: The implemented curriculum increased general surgery trainees' knowledge and confidence in four commonly encountered OBGYN procedures and demonstrated a high level of learner satisfaction and sustainability. The curriculum exhibits high educational impact and could be a valuable adjunctive training for other non-OBGYN physicians who may need to provide OBGYN care in military environments.

Simulation Training for Operational Medicine Providers (STOMP): Impact of a Comprehensive Skills-Based Curriculum for Military General Medical Officers.

INTRODUCTION: A standardized training curriculum designed for general medical officers (GMO) titled Simulation Training for Operational Medicine Providers (STOMP) was recently developed to educate and improve GMOs' procedural skills through directed feedback prior to assuming duties in an operational environment. This study aimed to determine the impact this novel curriculum had on GMOs'confidence levels in 21 core privileges covering eight different subspecialties while stationed at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cohort study from 2015 to 2017 was designed to address our specific aim to examine if the implementation of the STOMP curriculum increased GMOs' confidence levels. Fifty-seven participants enrolled in the study. The GMO case group completed the STOMP curriculum (n = 22), while the control or GMO self-study group (n = 35) did not complete the curriculum. Six months after starting clinical practice at NMCP, both groups completed an online survey that assessed their confidence level in performing each core privilege using a 5-point Likert scale. Scores were analyzed using a Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney test. Research data were derived from an approved Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, Virginia IRB, protocol number: NMCP.2016.0010. RESULTS: Participants demonstrated a statistically significant increase in self-rated confidence scores (p < 0.05) in nine core privilege skills: punch biopsy, shave biopsy, excisional biopsy, removal of otic foreign body, removal of nasal foreign body, removal of ocular foreign body, tonometry, incision and drainage of a thrombosed hemorrhoid, and reduction of simple closed fractures and dislocations. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that a novel and recently developed standardized simulation training curriculum entitled STOMP improves the confidence levels of early career physicians' in several primary care procedural skills and is an ideal adjunct to traditional lecture-based teaching prior to independent practice in a primary care environment.