47 Improving Technical and Human Factors Skills on the Older Person Unit: An <i>in situ</i> Frailty Simulation Programme

Abstract

Awareness of symptoms associated with frailty is uneven across acute hospital staff The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of simulation was selected to increase accessibility for staff and promote ward team learning. Sessions started in October 2020 on one ward, before moving across other wards. These 1-hour sessions have been delivered weekly with a hiatus due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A bank of frailty-based scenarios has been created, ranging from acutely unwell patients to communication with families. Participants have been from across the multi-disciplinary team. Data were collected using pre- and post-session questionnaires – containing the Human Factors Skills for Healthcare Instrument (HuFSHI) and frailty-based knowledge questions with Likert scales. Learning has been disseminated through the department via newsletters.Thirteen sessions have been delivered with 59 participants (23 nurses, 20 doctors, 9 physiotherapists, 6 nursing assistants, 1 occupational therapist). Forty-nine surveys were completed – 100% of participants found the sessions useful. Post-training, staff demonstrated improvement of self-efficacy in 11/12 HuFSHI questions and all frailty questions (Table 1). The most common learning themes were communication (51%), teamwork (43%) and escalation (24%), as well as management of frail patients (35%). Working with the team (47%), the scenarios (18%) and debriefing (12%) were aspects learners most liked about the sessions.An