Simulation-Based Training Improves Fellows’ Competence in Brain Death Discussion and Declaration

Background: Despite well-defined American Academy of Neurology guidelines for death by whole brain criteria (brain death), there is marked variability in national practice, which some have attributed to lack of formal education. Further, communication with surrogates and families about brain death is integral to brain death declaration. As such, we developed a targeted brain death curriculum combining didactics and simulation-based education to improve examination and subsequent communication skills with families. Methods: Multidisciplinary critical care fellows participated in (1) didactic and case-based curriculum, (2) brain death simulated examination (SimMan3G mannequin), and (3) a standardized family scenario with delivery of a brain death diagnosis to a surrogate “family member”. Fellows completed a precurriculum and postcurriculum multiple choice knowledge test and survey (Likert 1 to 10 scale) evaluating measures regarding diagnosis and communication of brain death. t Test and 2-tailed Wilcoxon signed rank test were used for statistical analysis (P
Source: The Neurologist - Category: Neurology Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research