Medicine has borrowed before from the field of aviation safety.
The pre-surgical checklist, discussed last week, is one recent example.
Patient safety guru Bob Wachter discusses the procedures that went into training the US Airways crew in preparation for their harrowing landing in the Hudson River.
How many times do doctors receive similar training, especially as they manage dangerous situations on a daily basis?
Unfortunately, the answer is “close to never.” Dr. Wachter points out that doctors rarely train together for medical emergencies such as code blues or emergency operations. Ask any physician if they had gone through rigorous teamwork training, and you’ll find that the answer is most likely “no.”
Perhaps, like the checklist, this is another page that medicine can borrow from the aviation safety textbook that can save patient lives.
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- Checklists
- Is the focus on patient safety creating a generation of indecisive doctors who practice without confidence?
- Restricting resident work hours forces doctors to lie, and other unintended consequences of the 80-hour work week
- What doctors can learn from patients in the health care reform debate
- Will medical tourism drive domestic doctors out of business?
- How to drive a doctor out of primary care
- Physician assistants and nurse practitioners are staffing rural ERs full time
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Training like that must be renewed regularly.
Who you gonna charge for it? Airline pilots are most certainly on the clock when they do this training.
That’s the kind of thing that a salaried position offers.
This is one area where the military is ahead of civilian medicine. The Air Force, which has always been a leader in air crew training and mishap analysis, has been applying that same training to its medical service for years. It was well done.
I’m not seen any similar training in civilian medicine.
OK, might be worthwhile in this era where doctors graduate med school having never started an IV…but does anyone in a real residency not know how to run a code??..And check how many hours Capt Sullenberger spends in the cockpit.. its about 80 hours a MONTH..not that theres anything wrong with that..
I am an obstetric trainee in UK and have to (i.e. produce documentation on an annual basis) do “skills drills” every year. This is done with midwives and anaesthetic colleagues, who are also going to respond if any of the situations arise in real life. Instruments are available, drugs (at correct doses with appropriate dilutants!) are drawn up and there is extensive discussion afterwards. I don’t think this is as rare as is portrayed in your posting.
A better question is; what can the government learn from this episode?
How’s this: when geese are consistently in the flightpath of a major airport, don’t listen to the animal rights activists. Use common sense — don’t wait for the results of a controlled study — and shoot the damn geese.
This was a routine short flight done many times daily. Why are the airlines and government driving up prices unnecessarily by requiring highly trained, experienced pilots?
Surely a midlevel such as a pilot assistant or flight attendant with additional training could this by using established protocols for far less cost. If something came up out of the ordinary, they would know to call their supervising pilot.
You mean the aviation provider?
At least in the ED and in anesthesia, training programs are getting better at setting up simulation lab with a manickin that breathes, throat swells, talks, etc. The technology is getting quite good. I’ve used them as a med student and I have to say that they are great way to “burn” certain cases and protocols into your head before you confront an actual patient.
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