How to resume safe access to a medical simulation center at the time of COVID-19 pandemic: The proposal of a protocol from a university institution in North-Eastern Italy

Simulation-based Interprofessional Education (IPE) for Enhanced Attitude and Teamwork of Anesthesiology Residents and Nurse Anesthesia Students in Iran

INTRODUCTION

Simulation-based interprofessional education (IPE) provides the basis for the necessary competencies for interprofessional collaboration. This study aimed to examine the effects of this educational approach on anesthesia students' attitude and teamwork.

METHODS

This quasi-experimental study was performed on 72 anesthesiology residents and nurse anesthesia students consisting of 36 participants in the intervention and 36 in the control group. The intervention group participated in a simulation-based interprofessional season, including three scenarios in the induction phase of anesthesia. The control group received routine education. We used the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) to measure attitude and the KidSIM Team Performance Scale to assess teamwork. The data were analyzed by Analysis of Covariance, paired T-test, Chi-square, and Fischer's exact test in SPSS software, version 22.

RESULTS

Comparing post-test scores by ANCOVA showed a significant difference between groups (p=0.001) because there was a significant positive change in the overall attitude score in the intervention group after receiving simulation-based IPE. Regarding the quality of teamwork, the intervention group's scores in all three sub-scales changed significantly after intervention (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The simulation-based IPE is recommended to promote a teamwork culture and train empowered anesthesia professionals.

The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on modification of medical teaching in Italy: A narrative review

During the first wave of Covid-19 in Italy, there was a problem with University. Universities couldn't do face-to-face (FTF) lessons and started to do online lessons (OL). This study investigates the impressions of students, teachers, and institutions during the first wave situation. A search was conducted on the main international databases, and only studies conducted in Italy starting during the Covid-19 pandemic are considered. 9 studies tell about the impressions of students about OL lessons, and 10 studies speak about medical resident's situation and teacher's impressions. Studies about students give conflicting results, teachers are generally satisfied with the contents, but agree on the difficulty of not having relationships with students. Medical residents have reduced significantly the clinical and surgical practice, sometimes increasing the research. In the future, it is indispensable to create a system that guarantees the efficacy of FTF lessons for practice, it is still low in sanitary and medical courses in Italy during the pandemic period.

General Surgery Training and One Year of COVID-19. What Has Been the Impact on Residents' Operating Room Surgical Activity? A Report From an Italian Academic Hospital

BACKGROUND

In the last year and a half, the COVID-19 pandemic has put great pressure on the healthcare systems of many countries, Italy included, leading to a reorganization of hospital activities and a dramatic reduction in surgical activity. Our study aimed to evaluate, from a quantitative and qualitative perspective, the impact of this reduction on the formation of surgery residents at the Academic Hospital of Udine.

METHODS

We compared the resident's surgical activity during the pandemic year (March 2020-2021) with the one during the pre-pandemic year, declining the surgical procedures by timing, type, and complexity and categorizing the residents by postgraduate year (PGY) and surgical role.

RESULTS

Our analysis highlighted how the main reductions occurred in the elective and medium complexity surgery due to the procrastination of benign pathologies such as hernias, cholelithiasis, and hemorrhoids, which also appeared to be the more frequent cases where the residents are first operators. On the other hand, the residents of the last PGY still maintained a good exposure to neoplasm and high complexity interventions, which are cardinal aspects in the last year of formation.

CONCLUSIONS

These results mostly confirmed the critical points noted by the resident surgeons themselves, highlighting however the specific impact on different PGY and surgical activities, offering a starting point to better understand how to challenge the negative effect that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the surgical resident formation.