Henn, P,Power, D,Smith, SD,Power, T,Hynes, H,Gaffney, R,McAdoo, JD

2012

January

Bmj Open

A metric-based analysis of structure and content of telephone consultations of final-year medical students in a high-fidelity emergency medicine simulation

Validated

()

CLOSED MALPRACTICE CLAIMS HEALTH-CARE COMMUNICATION INSURERS ERRORS

2

Objectives: In this study we aimed to analyse the structure and content of telephone consultations of final-year medical students in a high-fidelity emergency medicine simulation. The purpose was to identify any areas of deficiency within structure and content in the effective transfer of clinical information via the telephone of final-year medical students.Design: An educational study.Setting: Simulation centre in a medical school.Participants: 113 final-year medical students.Primary and secondary outcomes: The primary outcome was to analyse the structure and content of telephone consultations of final-year medical students in a high-fidelity emergency medicine simulation. The secondary outcome was to identify any areas of deficiency within structure and content in the effective transfer of clinical information via the telephone of final-year medical students.Results: During phone calls to a senior colleague 30% of students did not positively identify themselves, 29% did not identify their role, 32% did not positively identify the recipient of the phone call, 59% failed to positively identify the patient, 49% did not read back the recommendations of their senior colleague and 97% did not write down the recommendations of their senior colleague.Conclusions: We identified a deficiency in our students skills to communicate relevant information via the telephone, particularly failure to repeat back and write down instructions. We suggest that this reflects a paucity of opportunities to practice this skill in context during the undergraduate years. The assumption that this skill will be acquired following qualification constitutes a latent error within the healthcare system. The function of undergraduate medical education is to produce graduates who are fit for purpose at the point of graduation.

ARTN e001298