Reed, W. Gary2024-06-072024-06-072024-052024-05May 2024https://hdl.handle.net/2152.5/10320Pages 1-81 are misnumbered as pages 2-82.BACKGROUND: Communication failures contribute to significant teamwork failures causing adverse events for patients and providers, especially during patient handovers when providers transition care of patients to each other. Teamwork education has been shown to improve knowledge, skills, and communication in prelicensure learners. Despite knowledge of the problem and potential solutions, as well as requirements and recommendations by national medical accreditation and oversight agencies, there exists a gap in standardized teamwork education and assessment. The Emergency Department is a setting rife with inherent barriers to teamwork with a high frequency of patient handovers. LOCAL PROBLEM: At UT Southwestern, students used to have limited opportunities to improve teamwork in structured ways during their time on the clinical wards. In response, the institution developed and is implementing an educational quality enhancement plan - TeamFIRST - with the goal of developing a competency-based teamwork education (CBTE) strategy for students that is progressive, interprofessional, and continuous through the pre-clerkship, clerkship, and post-clerkship phases of medical school. Module 4 out of the 5 modules TeamFIRST developed focuses on improving teamwork competencies specifically in the clinical learning environment, i.e. during clinical rotations in most students' second years and beyond. This includes the Emergency Medicine clinical rotation, which most students undergo at Parkland Memorial Hospital, the busiest emergency department in the nation, as well as at other local Emergency Departments like Clements University Hospital and Presbyterian Dallas. Until now, the Emergency Medicine clinical rotation at UT Southwestern did not have any formal handover or teamwork education, despite being the clinical setting in which teamwork and handovers arguably provide the most value. METHODS: Continuous Quality Improvement (QI) and Implementation Science tools and methodologies were used in the study of the current state of handovers in the ED and in the design of interventions to implement effective handovers. Define-Measure-Analyze-Design-Verify methodology was used to iterate our interventions. Interviews with stakeholders were conducted to determine critical needs, learn about the main drivers for intervention, and map the current state of the ED clerkship rotation so that a suitable educational module could be developed. These stakeholders mainly included faculty, course directors, residents, and students in the Emergency Medicine rotation as well as members of TeamFIRST. Shared requirements from stakeholders included focusing on improving handovers, limiting time commitment due to already busy schedules, and mixing virtual with in-person education. Information was also gathered on the state of different handover types in the ED to design assessment tools that captured the critical components. TeamFIRST identified nine of the twelve Teamwork Competencies - Structured Communication, Closed Loop Communication, Asking Clarifying Questions, Sharing Unique Information, Mutual Trust, Team Mental Models, Mutual Performance Monitoring, Obstacles to Teamwork, and Psychological Safety - for the Module 4 interventions to address. Working in concert with TeamFIRST and the Emergency Medicine stakeholders, we developed a teamwork education curriculum that integrated into the existing Emergency Medicine clerkship rotation and focused specifically on improving patient handovers. Each teamwork competency was explored to differing degrees among the spectrum of inform, demonstrate, practice, and feedback. We selected various process, outcome, and balancing measures such as impact (effectiveness), fidelity of activities, acceptability and appropriateness, and feasibility. Impact of the curriculum was measured by assessing students' knowledge, confidence in skills, and attitudes on the teamwork competencies. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected. Statistical methods such as Z test of proportion and Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze pre- and post- data to determine any significant changes. INTERVENTIONS: The teamwork curriculum initially designed for the Emergency Medicine clerkship rotation (the "test" phase, designated "Curriculum 1.0") had three main aspects: a pre-orientation, asynchronous, virtual educational module on teamwork and handovers, integrated handover practice and assessment throughout the rotation, integrated teamwork participation/observation, reflection, and debriefing during the rotation. The pre-orientation module was designed with a pre-assessment to determine students' capacities before being exposed to the material and a post-assessment to measure changes in knowledge and receive feedback after going through the didactic curriculum that covered the teamwork competencies and dedicated a full section to patient handovers. The handover practice was scattered throughout teaching shifts, simulation center cases and a dedicated handover station, and while working on regular emergency department shifts with accompanying assessment tools made to allow residents and faculty to evaluate student handovers and provide learners feedback. Lastly, students participated in and observed teamwork instances throughout their rotation and were encouraged to note these experiences down in a Teamwork Competency Journal so they could reflect and debrief on them in a group session late in the rotation. Finally, an end-of-rotation assessment was administered to capture changes in knowledge, skills, and attitudes, as well as feedback on acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility. Whereas feasibility data were derived from the qualitative feedback, fidelity to the learning activities were assessed quantitatively. These interventions were first tested with a non-representative student sample outside of the EM rotation at the end of the summer 2020 and during field tests in Spring 2021 to improve the process and optimize the interventions. The official, representative test within the clerkship, "Curriculum 1.0", began in June 2021 and ran through March 2023 (22 months total). "Curriculum 2.0", the more streamlined version, is our pilot phase, and has been running from April 2023 through the present. RESULTS: We had 124 students participate in the Curriculum 1.0 test over 13 rotation blocks and collected qualitative and quantitative data on acceptability, appropriateness, fidelity, feasibility, and impact. So far, the curriculum has shown to be effective in improving knowledge (significant in 5/8 categories, p<0.05) and confidence in teamwork skills (significant in 11/11 categories, p<0.05). Also, students have deemed the curriculum acceptable and appropriate (all average ratings >4/5). However, some learning activities were deemed less feasible, and the fidelity (completion as intended) of different activities was low (48% completion or less). Feedback was generally positive, with common themes being that the handover education and practice were useful and relevant, the teamwork debrief was excellent, and the course was unique. Negative feedback commonly addressed a lack of clarity in communication about the curriculum requirements and the need for more active student roles. CONCLUSION: Overall, the impact and acceptability/appropriateness of Curriculum 1.0 were high, feasibility of the curriculum was moderate, and fidelity was low. Some of the key takeaways include that our stakeholders found the education to be effective and valuable, a combination of asynchronous and synchronous learning seemed the most feasible and acceptable, and that the time pressures on our EM residents and faculty are high. Going forward, we will continue to pilot the streamlined "Curriculum 2.0", which has already shown to be more feasible and sustainable, to improve the experience for learners and instructors, improve data collection, and focus on getting students more practice on patient handovers.application/pdfenClinical CompetenceContinuity of Patient CareEmergency MedicinePatient Care TeamPatient HandoffQuality ImprovementClinical ClerkshipThesis2024-06-071438579248