MEDICAL STUDENT SURGICAL SIMULATION WITH HIGH FIDELITY KNOWLEDGE DONOR MODEL

Abstract

Medical students need to excel in basic clinical skills to become effective healthcare providers. Intentional skills training could lead to more improved patient outcomes in the hospital setting. In this pilot study, Knowledge Donors (high-fidelity whole-body donors treated with a novel preservation solution) are used for students to practice endotracheal intubation and foley bladder catheter placement, both of which are time-sensitive procedures in the emergency setting. It was hypothesized that intentional repetitive training on the Knowledge Donor platform would result in improved performance of these two procedures. Students received visual guides and in-person demonstrations of foley catheter placement and endotracheal intubations on both manikins and Knowledge Donors prior to performing the procedures themselves. Each student completed three intubations and foley catheter placements on two female and one male donors. Students were measured on critical procedural steps and time to completion by an experienced proctor. Student confidence was selfreported. Nine students completed intubations with 13/27 reaching proficiency. 10 students completed foley catheter placements with 16/30 judged as proficient. Failure to verbalize steps and sterility contributed to most failures across both procedures. Mistakes were not repeated in 8/9 intubations and 6/8 foley catheter placements. Median times in minutes to completion decreased significantly over 3 repetitions for intubation (2.8, 2.2, 1.5; P<0.001) and foley catheter placement (8.2, 6.8, 6.0: P<0.001). This pilot study demonstrated that utilizing the high-fidelity Knowledge Donor platform in medical student skills training contributed to reaching competency in intubation and foley catheter placements after few repetitions. Notably, completion time significantly improved for each of these time-sensitive procedures.