Grant for UK's Anesthesia Olympics Helps Residents Master Skills

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 5, 2015) – When the word 'Olympics' comes to mind, people often associate it with professional athletes who demonstrate their talents and abilities in competition. In the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, anesthesiology residents also demonstrate their skills in a simulation event called the Anesthesia Olympics, a unique program designed to assess and sharpen their skill sets as they further their education.

Similar to the Olympics where athletes are measured in seconds, meters and kilograms, residents who participate in the Anesthesia Olympics are evaluated as they move through a series of six work stations where they are asked to demonstrate a skill that is appropriate for their expected level of training. Each station has a simulator patient or a human patient played by an actor, and a faculty mentor who evaluates performance using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to determine strengths as well as areas that need to be further developed. In the spirit of an Olympic competition, gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded to residents based on performance at each of the stations as well as overall awards for the top three performers.

Dr. Robert McLennan, a fourth-year anesthesiology resident, was one of the first to participate in the program. He initially thought the 'Olympics' trivialized the importance of the job; however, he realized he was wrong when he got the opportunity to participate with his colleagues.

"This proved to be more than just a legitimate training exercise — it also was a chance to work with multiple faculty and senior residents as they helped lay the foundation for my future training," McLennan said. 

Resident physician Dr. Jon Holzberger said the Anesthesia Olympics has been a fun departure from traditional simulations to practice and hone several of their most critical skill sets in an entertaining way.

"The fast-paced simulations helped me focus on areas of weakness where I could improve and provided some of the best feedback I've received as a resident. Simulation is becoming a crucial component of medical training, and the Olympics was a very thoughtful method of incorporating many important simulations into a single event. The feedback, prizes and overall experience was extraordinarily well done," Holzberger said.

Dr. Brooke Ginter views the Olympics as a fun way to test procedural and communication capabilities on major skill sets without endangering actual patients.

"I feel like the Anesthesia Olympics helped me grow as an anesthesiologist. The stations are more difficult each year, so we have to take ownership of our learning to make sure we have built on the basics and are ready to step up to the challenge of more advanced aspects of the practice," Ginter said.

The first month of residency is an intense clinical and academic training in the basics of anesthesiology. Dr. Bob Weaver participated in the Anesthesia Olympics as a first-year resident and later at the beginning of his second year.

"It was very encouraging to see the progress I had made in one year. Clinical situations, skills, and decisions that a year prior had been very challenging now seemed much less so after a year of experience and education. The event again gave the chance to pause and receive feedback to fine-tune clinical practice, a luxury not always allowed during patient care."

The idea for the Anesthesia Olympics was developed by Dr. Annette Rebel, associate professor of anesthesiology, and initiated at UK in 2011. Rebel is also the principal investigator on the study "Anesthesia Resident Skill Development Assessed by Competitive OSCE Event: Anesthesia Olympics."  Rebel's project recently received a $100,000 two-year grant from the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER). The Research in Education Grant (REG) is given to advance the careers and knowledge of anesthesiologists interested in improving the concepts, methods and techniques of education in anesthesiology. Specifically, the REG is focused on developing innovative approaches for anesthesia education.

Rebel says that with the transformation of anesthesiology resident education models from a time-based to a competency-based structure, the educational system is challenged to develop valid and helpful techniques to objectively assess resident skills based on their training level. The Anesthesia Olympics grant project is designed to evaluate (1) anesthesiology resident skill progression throughout the continuum of residency, (2) the ability to transfer the simulation and assessment approach to other institutions, and, (3) which Anesthesiology Milestones are best addressed with this approach.

The project proposes to replicate the event at three additional institutions (Vanderbilt University, The Ohio State University, and the University of North Carolina) for validation in a larger cohort, to progressively adjust the skill station complexity to study longitudinal growth of resident skills, and to review the value of the event for assessment of both procedural and non-procedural skills. 

The past Olympic events have been made possible by a departmental team effort including the support of Chairman Edwin A. Bowe, as well as the anesthesiology faculty work station mentors Dr. Jeremy Dority, Dr. Regina Fragneto, Dr. Dung Nguyen, Dr. Greg Rose and Dr. Randy Schell.

"With the FAER grant, we will be able to further develop it to include Olympic events during all four years of anesthesiology residency," said Amy DiLorenzo, education specialist in the Department of Anesthesiology. "The purpose is to make sure that all anesthesiology residents have the opportunity to demonstrate mastery of essential skills and get helpful feedback so that they can continually improve and perfect their skills."

The next Anesthesia Olympics for new first-year residents will be held at the end of July and for the second-year residents in August. 

Media Contact: Ann Blackford at 859-323-6442 or ann.blackford@uky.edu