The educational value of pediatric emergency transport: by design or by default?

Pediatric emergency transport teams provide an important and challenging clinical experience in many residency training programs. However, the educational value of this experience has not been carefully examined. A 32-item questionnaire was developed to assess curricular components of the three phases of the transport experience in residency training: phase 1 included pretransport training and qualifications and curricular planning, phase 2 addressed intratransport phone backup for the team analogous to online medical command, and phase 3 included posttransport feedback and performance evaluation. The study also addressed the chief residents' perception of the roles of the resident and transport nurse working on the team. The survey was mailed to chief residents at 76 pediatric residency programs in the United States. Data were received from 75 programs for a return rate of 98%. Fifty-four programs that used residents for transport team staffing were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Of the respondents, 39% report a specific training process prior to transport. Twenty-two percent of programs provide residents with written materials such as a manual or course syllabus. Eighty-two percent have a senior physician always identified for phone backup. Fifty-two percent of programs have no specific method for team evaluation and 31% rely only on informal verbal feedback. Thirty percent routinely provide feedback within one week of the transport. Sixty-three percent of chief residents view the experienced transport nurse as an equal member of the transport team. The study found that the educational structure of transports is largely unplanned and that basics such as preservice training and timely performance feedback are not usually addressed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)