An educational initiative to improve medical student awareness about brain death

A Qualitative Identification of Gaps in Understanding About Brain Death Among Trainees, Health Care Personnel and Families at an Academic Medical Center

“…It was outside the scope of this project to evaluate brain death knowledge, comfort level, or competency examination as in other studies. 2,12 Future directions will be toward creating educational interventions and reevaluating posteducation subjective comfort with and objective knowledge of brain death. The Neurocritical Care Society recently released the “Brain Death Kit,” 18 a series of webinar, proposed checklists, frequently asked questions, and core guidelines material which may be integrated into a targeted curriculum.…”

“…8,9 A common theme is a lack of formal education in brain death declaration among trainees and an urgency for improved exposure and education to brain death declaration. 2,5,10…”

“…Additionally, it appears that medical student knowledge of brain death is limited, and at least one study has attempted an intervention. 2 It is also unknown if gaps in knowledge change with level of medical training. Yet few recent studies take a wider perspective to include querying the staff and patient interface with brain death.…”

How Educators Can Help Prevent False Brain Death Diagnoses

“…Undergraduate and graduate medical education, as well as continuing medical education, should include instruction on the disorders of consciousness-brain death, coma, vegetative state, and minimally conscious state. In undergraduate medical education, simulation-based education on brain death diagnosis has been employed at several institutions, including New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine 22 and Florida International University (FIU) Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. 23 After implementation of a workshop and simulation, investigators at NYU Grossman found significant improvements in medical knowledge of brain death, comfort in performing a brain death examination, and comfort in counseling a family member.…”

“…23 After implementation of a workshop and simulation, investigators at NYU Grossman found significant improvements in medical knowledge of brain death, comfort in performing a brain death examination, and comfort in counseling a family member. 22 Investigators at FIU Herbert Wertheim found that implementation of a coma/brain death simulation translated into better medical student performance in real clinical settings. 23 There were significant improvements in documentation of focused history, accuracy of brain death examinations, high-yield reviews of the medical record, family counseling, and conflict resolution in actual coma patients compared to historical controls.…”