Ronald G. Carovano

Logistics of Conducting a Large Number of Individual Sessions with a Full-Scale Patient Simulator at a Scientific Meeting

Objective. To design and implement the logistics of accommodating a largenumber of participants in individual, hands-on sessions on a full-scalepatient simulator during a major scientific meeting or continuing medicaleducation course. Methods. We used our method during the 11th World Congressof Anaesthesiologists in Sydney, Australia to facilitate studying the impactof pulse oximetry and capnography on the time taken by anesthesiologists tocorrectly identify critical incidents on a full-scale patient simulator.Each study participant spent 15 minutes in 4 sections of the study area: theanesthesia and monitoring equipment briefing room, the simulator briefingroom, the simulation room and the debriefing room. Results. There were 113participants during five days (15 during instructor training and 25, 23, 24and 26 on subsequent exhibit days). We were oversubscribed daily. However,there were 9 no-shows during the 4 days of the study, which generated aparticipant absence rate of 9.2%. The average number of participantsover the 4 days of the study was 24.5 per day compared to our capacity of 27per day. The feedback we obtained from the participants about the simulationexperience and the format of the exercise was positive and enthusiastic.Conclusions. We have developed a practical and viable method that can beadapted for use at scientific meetings and courses, which improvesaccessibility of individual, hands-on sessions on full-scale patientsimulators to a larger audience than previously attainable. Our method isapplicable for continuing medical education courses as well as researchpurposes in the form of prospective studies during scientific meetings andcourses.