More than experience: a post-task reflection intervention among team members enhances performance in student teams confronted with a simulated resuscitation task—a prospective randomised trial

• Published in: BMJ simulation & technology enhanced learning 2020-03, Vol.6 (2), p.81-86
• Main Authors: Kündig, Patrizia, Tschan, Franziska, Semmer, Norbert K, Morgenthaler, Camille, Zimmermann, Jasmin, Holzer, Eliane, Huber, Simon Andreas, Hunziker, Sabina, Marsch, Stephan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cardiac arrhythmia; Cardiopulmonary resuscitation; Collaboration; CPR; Educational technology; Emergencies; Intervention; Medical students; Original Research; Students; Teams
• ISSN: 2056-6697; 2056-6697
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjstel-2018-000395

BackgroundTeams that regularly step back from action and deliberately reflect on their performance and strategies show higher performance. Ad hoc emergency teams with changing team composition cannot develop such habits but may engage in short postaction reflection to discuss shortcomings of past performance and potential adaptations of their strategies for future similar tasks. This study aimed to test the effect of a short postaction self-led reflective team briefing on resuscitation performance in a simulator setting in terms of three performance parameters: hands-on time, coordination between chest compression and ventilation, and defibrillation.MethodsWe performed a randomised controlled trial including 56 ad hoc formed teams of three fourth-year medical students each. All groups performed a resuscitation task, followed by a self-guided reflective briefing, based on a general instruction (n=28 teams), or an unrelated discussion session (control condition; n=29), followed by a second resuscitation task in the same team composition.ResultsAdjusted for performance in the first task, teams in the reflection condition showed higher performance gain in the second resuscitation than teams in the control condition (6.21 percentage points (95% CI 1.31 to 11.10, p