Abstract
Introduction
Geriatric medicine requires a unique set of clinical and non-technical skills, including advanced communication skills, multi-disciplinary team management, balancing risks and benefit of treatment in complex multimorbid patients, and a focus on holistic person-centred care. Current simulation courses often focus on acute emergencies but lack the nuance and complexity of geriatric medicine. We describe the development of and feedback from a novel Geriatric Medicine Simulation Course in Wales.
Methods
The course was designed by a small team of geriatric medicine specialty registrars. Funding was obtained from the Welsh BGS Dragon's Den for 2 pilot courses. 12 scenarios were developed mapped to the geriatric medicine curriculum and peer-reviewed by local consultants, 6 for each pilot 1 day course. Scenarios were 20 minutes in duration with a 35 minute debrief. Pre- and post-course feedback was collected.
Results
There were 19 attendees over two courses. 14/19 had undertaken some form of simulation training before, none had undertaken geriatric medicine specific simulation training. For 17/18 the course supported meeting their simulation training requirements for the year.
74% (14/19) described the day as 'fun', 95% (18/19) as 'interesting', 74% (14/19) as 'challenging', 79% (15/19) as 'worthwhile', and 79% (15/19) as 'safe learning'. No attendees described the course as 'easy', 'boring' or 'pressured'. All attendees (19/19) would recommend the course to another higher specialty trainee in geriatric medicine, and all found the course enjoyable.
Conclusion
We have successfully developed a well-received Geriatric medicine simulation course combining clinical skills with non-technical skills and human factors training. Although we have focussed on higher specialist trainees in the pilot courses, we are planning to open the course to allow doctors at earlier stages of training, higher specialist trainees in other medical specialities and specialist nursing and allied health professionals in geriatric medicine to benefit from the learning opportunities presented.