Role of Obstetrics Simulator in Developing Knowledge and Skills of Managing Obstetrics Emergencies in MBBS Interns.

Abstract

Background: A significant proportion of maternal and perinatal fatalities are avertable through enhanced emergency obstetric and neonatal care within healthcare facilities. Simulation-based training provides a safe and error-tolerant environment for practice, thereby ensuring that real patients remain unharmed. This effectively removes the conflicting objectives of patient care and education within the clinical experiences of trainee doctors.

Materials and methods: Emergency Obstetrics training curriculum involved CAE Lucina obstetrics simulator on which emergency obstetrics case scenarios were conducted. Evaluation of participants was done using clinical case scenarios based questionnaire, CATS scale and case management outcomes while managing simulation-based case scenarios. Post-training the quantitative data was compared using paired t test.

Results: Total 154 participants completed this study. At the end of this study, when pre- and post-test data were compared, there was significant improvement seen in the participants performance. For questionnaire, the mean improvement in score was 2.68 points (95%CI 2.34-3.03, p < 0.05). CATS scale showed overall Mean improvement of 25.31(95%CI 23.38-27.24, p < 0.05). All the parameters of CATS scale showed significant improvement. Case management outcomes were improved from 63.3 to 79.59% at the end of this study.

Conclusion: This research highlights remarkable efficacy associated with the implementation of high fidelity simulation methodologies in the training concerning obstetric emergencies. The integration of a virtual reality high fidelity simulator with traditional hands-on training approaches, possesses the potential to effectively bridge the existing knowledge and skills gap.