Development of a Hybrid Simulated Patient Experience to Practice Care of the Dying Older Adult

Introduction: Care of the dying older adult includes critical skills that emerging physicians should master but are not consistently taught. Simulation has been shown to be an excellent tool for teaching these skills in a standardized fashion. Simulation allows direct observation to assess and provide learner feedback. Our goal was to develop a learning activity to practice skills caring for the older adult at the end of life and identify areas in need of improvement. Methods: We developed a hybrid simulation in which fourth-year medical students and internal medicine (IM) residents cared for a 70-year-old patient (Laerdal SimMan 3G) who was actively dying in the emergency department. He was accompanied by his wife (standardized patient) and a nurse (standardized role). Over the academic year 2012-2013, we observed and videotaped 83 fourth-year medical students and 22 first-year IM residents in this setting. We assessed the learners' completion of 15 tasks associated with good end-of-life care. Results: , and only 50% of the IM residents did so. Discussion: and