High fidelity simulation is quickly becoming the training modality of choice for high acuity specialties such as anesthesia, critical care, emergency medicine, and surgery. In addition to the animation of existing anesthesia curriculum and the evaluation of medical expert roles, our simulation program also focuses on training crisis resource management skills including leadership, delegation, situation awareness and communication. The program offers simulated experiences to a broad variety of groups in addition to undergraduate and postgraduate anesthesia trainees. Residents from almost every medical and surgical specialty are exposed to simulator training sessions in this program during their critical care rotation. The anesthesia simulator program also provides multidisciplinary group training sessions to high performance teams such as the Critical Care Outreach Team.
The simulation program operates out of CSTAR (Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics) in the Legacy Research Pavilion at London Health Sciences Center.
For more information regarding the simulation program (ACCTTS), please visit UWOMedsim.
Simulation continues to be an integral part of the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine. During our recent residency accreditation by the Royal College, the ACCTTS group was a specifically recognized strength in the training program at Western. The ACCTTS faculty is committed to excellence in simulation delivery and debriefing. We continue to refine our skills through systematic and rigorous peer assessment. In light of the Royal College initiative to transition residency programs to competency-based curriculum after 2015, we are striving to position our simulation program to make that transition a smooth one.
Dr. Richard Cherry is the Western representative on the Canadian National Anesthesia Simulation Curriculum (CaNASC) committee. This committee is tasked with the development of a standardized national simulation curriculum for postgraduate training in anesthesia.
While the predominant focus of ACCTTS is postgraduate anesthesia and critical care, our faculty participates annually in multiple other simulation-based education activities. As in previous years, we actively deliver the curriculum for the Anesthesia Clerkship Boot Camp, the CSTAR IPE Summer School, and Surgery PGY1 Simulation, and assist in the annual Emergencies in Otolaryngology course.
This past academic year saw greater opportunities to expand interprofessional simulation based education. ACCTTS continues to break new ground in this area of study and practice at Western University. Under the direction of Dr. Andreas Antoniou, a successful interprofessional simulation-training program has been piloted in obstetrical anesthesia.
During these simulations, teams of anesthesiologist, obstetricians, respiratory therapists and nurses participate in Crisis Resource Management training. These events have been well received and participants are wholly committed to improving our overall team performance and increasing patient safety.
In further interprofessional activities, the ACCTTS (Drs. Bruni, Butler, and Cherry) faculty participated with over thirty operating room nurses from Victoria Hospital and University Hospital in a simulation-based education day focused on anesthesia emergencies in the operating room. In collaboration with general surgery, critical care and CSTAR, ACCTTS faculty successfully delivered the first high fidelity, in-situ simulation experience in the CCTC and Victoria Hospital. It is our objective to see that this type of professional training activity will become a regular occurrence for our trainees and practicing professional staff.
ACCTTS enjoyed having Dr. David Dubois as our Simulation Fellow during this academic year. Dr. Dubois has returned to Sherbrooke, Québec, where he will help to establish the anesthesia simulation programming. We are pleased the fellowship program will be expanding next year and we look forward to the arrival of Dr. Arwa Alzahrani (Saudi Arabia) and Dr. Erika Dutz (Australia). Acceptance to our fellowship continues to be a competitive process with numerous applicants from both national and international locations.
Our group continues to represent the department well at notable national and international meetings. Drs. Antoniou and Cherry presented two workshops at The Canadian Simulation Summit (Ottawa Nov 2012) and the International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH Orlando Jan 2013). The workshops covered two topics: Thinking Outside the Box - Creativity and Simulation Scenario Design; and Degrief the Debrief - How to Manage the Difficult Debrief.
