High Fidelity Simulation Is Associated With Good Discriminability In Emergency Medicine Residents’ In-Training Examinations

Abstract BackgroundIn-training examinations (ITEs), arranged during residency training, evaluate the residents' performances periodically. The ITE usually consists of written and oral forms. There is limited literature focusing on the effectiveness of emergency medicine (EM) resident ITEs in the format of simulation-based examinations, as compared to traditional oral or written tests. Our primary objective is to compare high fidelity simulation with written and oral tests in the evaluation of the residents with different seniority in EM training programs. MethodsDuring the 5-year study period, 8 ITEs were administered to 68 EM residents, and 253 ITE scores were collected. Different ITE scores were calculated and presented as mean and standard deviation. Discrimination of ITE scores between different training years of residency was examined using one-way ANOVA test. ResultsThe high fidelity simulation scores correlated to the EM training year, and residents in their fourth training year (R4) had the highest scores consistently, followed by R3, R2, and then R1. The oral test scores had similar results but not as consistent as the high fidelity simulation tests. The written test scores distribution failed to discriminate the residents' seniority. The high fidelity simulation test had the best discriminative ability and better correlation between different EM residency training years comparing to oral or written forms.ConclusionsHigh fidelity simulation tests had a good discriminative ability and were well correlated to the EM training year. We suggest high-fidelity simulation should be a part of ITE of EM training programs and maybe adopted in EM board certification examination in the future.