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Identifying and Transmitting the Culture of Emergency Medicine Through Simulation
Author(s) -
Purdy Eve,
Alexander Charlotte,
Caughley Melissah,
Bassett Shane,
Brazil Victoria
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
aem education and training
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.49
H-Index - 9
ISSN - 2472-5390
DOI - 10.1002/aet2.10325
Subject(s) - specialty , ethnography , medical education , participant observation , emergency department , psychology , identity (music) , identification (biology) , value (mathematics) , process (computing) , medicine , nursing , family medicine , sociology , computer science , physics , botany , machine learning , anthropology , acoustics , biology , operating system
Background Simulation is commonly used in medical education. It offers the opportunity for participants to apply theoretical knowledge and practice nontechnical skills. We aimed to examine how simulation may also help to identify emergency medicine culture and serve as a tool to transmit values, beliefs, and practices to medical learners. Methods We undertook a focused ethnography of a simulated emergency department exercise delivered to 98 third‐year medical students. This ethnography included participant observation, informal interviews, and document review. Analysis was performed using a recursive method, a simultaneous deductive and inductive approach to data interpretation. Results All 20 staff (100%) and 92 of 98 medical students (94%) participated in the study. We identified seven core values—identifying and treating dangerous pathology, managing uncertainty, patients and families at the center of care, balancing needs and resources at the system level, value of the team approach, education as integral, and emergency medicine as part of self‐identity—and 27 related beliefs that characterized emergency medicine culture. We observed that culture was transmitted during the simulation exercise. Conclusion This study contributes to the characterization of the culture of emergency medicine by identifying core values and beliefs that are foundational to the specialty. Simulation facilitated cultural compression, which allowed for ready identification of values, beliefs, and practices and also facilitated transmission of culture to learners. This study expands understanding of the culture of emergency medicine and the role of simulation in the process of cultural exchange.