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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Pediatric patients require tracheostomy tube placement as a last resort for critical airway management. Around-the-clock care is needed at discharge because of the high risk of morbidity and mortality associated with a tracheostomy. The potential for catastrophic sequalae can create a high stress home environment. A simulation program that used a high-fidelity manikin was implemented to reduce complications, morbidity and mortality, and improve skills for real-life medical scenarios.
METHODS: A tracheostomy care simulation program was implemented at a large tertiary care children’s hospital from October 2019 to October 2020. Caregivers participated in a pre-post program survey and rated 9 statements on a 5-point scale with regard to knowledge, confidence, and comfort level of taking care of their child at home. Emergency scenarios included accidental tracheostomy tube dislodgement, tracheostomy tube plugging, cardiac arrest, and ventilator failure. Classes were recorded for objective start-to-finish scenario time stamps and prompt rates. A medical chart review was performed 90 d after discharge.
RESULTS: Eighteen caregivers for 10 children participated. For the 10 children, there was a 9.1% increase in the average total score agreement from pre to post survey, with scores going from “agree” to “strongly agree” (P = .001). Each subset of questions had a significant increase in scores after participation: knowledge, P = .002; confidence, P = .006; and comfort, P = .01. The caregivers required an average 20% prompt rate for the next step in the scenario. Children were 70% female, 80% white, and 60% had public insurance and had their tracheostomy tube placed at a median age of 4 months (range, 0 months to 24 years). Three children (n = 3/9 [33.3%]) were readmitted for tracheitis within 90 d after being discharged to home.
CONCLUSIONS: Caregiver knowledge, confidence, and comfort levels were increased after participation. Pediatric patients with a tracheostomy are medically fragile, therefore, it is important for caregivers to be aware of and prepared for common tracheostomy emergencies and to “experience” emergency situations firsthand.
Footnotes
- Correspondence: Jennifer L McCoy MA, Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, 4401 Penn Avenue, Faculty Pavilion, 7th Floor, Office 7131, Pittsburgh, PA 15224. E-mail: mccoyJL{at}upmc.edu
Supplementary material related to this paper is available at http://www.rcjournal.com.
The authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest.
This project was presented by Ms McCoy at the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology annual meeting held virtually April 9–11, 2021.
This project described was grant funded by University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The Beckwith Institute, Pittsburgh, PA. The funding organization had no role in the design of the study, data collection, data analysis, and interpretation of the data nor in the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.
A Trilogy 100 ventilator was supplied by Philips Respironics Sleep and Respiratory Care for educational and research purposes.
- Copyright © 2022 by Daedalus Enterprises
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