International Journal of Healthcare Simulation

Background:

For Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) Senior House Officers (SHOs), with no formal medical training, the first exposure to inpatient medical or OMFS emergencies will be the first time they are having to manage them, usually alone.

Aim:

Simulation-based education has been demonstrated to increase experience and confidence when used in medical education; therefore, an OMFS simulation-based education (SBE) course was created to facilitate this learning in a safe environment.

Method/design:

The course included implementation of training on SBAR, A to E Assessment, stations on medical emergencies such as sepsis, and OMFS emergencies centred around scenarios that necessitate rapid response including retrobulbar haemorrhage and carotid artery blowout. Pre- and post-course questionnaires were given to all delegates to assess their change in confidence when managing the scenarios. Each was asked to score their confidence in managing the scenarios numerically from 1 to 10.

Implementation outline:

Delegate numbers were limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic with all 10 completing both questionnaires. There was an even distribution between first- and second-year SHOs. Two had received simulation training before, however very limited. In all 10 simulation stations, every delegate felt an increase in confidence on average by 45% (range: 38–56%, p < 0.05) on the 10-point scale. Positive feedback was received, with all delegates finding the day useful, it achieving what they hoped and stating they would recommend the course to a colleague. Both the SBAR and A to E tools were unknown to all of the SHO’s, highlighting their lack of medical training as they are well-known tools within the medical community. SBE was demonstrated to increase the experience and confidence of SHO’s managing and escalating common OMFS situations. This will increase the quality of patient care of these specific scenarios but the translatable skills will also enable more comprehensive care and handover in all aspects of the delegates roles. Simulation-based education is an invaluable method of training for clinical scenarios and needs to become more common place in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Furthermore, Health Education England has commissioned the course to run on 3 days annually, providing simulation-based education for 40 SHOs in the Southwest Deanery undertaking a rotation within OMFS.