Evaluation of a simulation-based workshop on clinical performance for emergency physicians and nurses

Background: Simulation-based medical education has been growing rapidly and becomes one of the most popular teaching methods for improving patient safety and patient care. The Simulation Subcommittee of the Hong Kong College of Emergency Medicine organized an educational program emphasizing the team training, clinical decision-making and communication skills. This study aimed to evaluate the attitude of the participants toward a new training program and the change in the knowledge on clinical performance in emergency physicians and nurses after attending the educational program.

Methods: A course evaluation form was filled in by the participants at the end of the workshop. An assessment of 20 multiple-choice questions with 5 options was administered to the participants before and after the 2-day simulation-based training workshop.

Results: A total of 72 doctors and nurses working in the Accident and Emergency Department were enrolled. The average pretest and posttest scores were 12 and 14.3 respectively. The percentage improvement in the mean score of the pretest and posttest was 11.5%. The Chi-square test showed significant improvement in the pretest and posttest score grading (P=0.00). Paired t-test revealed significant difference between the mean scores of the pretest and posttest (P=0.00).

Conclusions: Participants had positive attitude toward this new training program. Significant improvement of the knowledge on clinical performance in healthcare professionals in the Accident and Emergency Department was observed after the participation in this simulation-based educational program.