Rhythm in sport: Adapted rhythmic training to optimize timing and enhance performance in athletes

Precise timing, the ability to control exactly when something should be done, integrates physical characteristics like strength, power, and technique into highly skilled sporting actions. Despite timing's indispensability to peak athletic performance, there exist few timing-specific training methods. The authors present a new training approach which adapts exercises from drummers, the elite timing experts, to athletes. This progressive series of rhythmic exercises cultivates a detailed, 'top down' cognitive framework of time which promises to enhance movement precision and efficiency. Use cases demonstrate broad applications of this new training approach across individual and team sports.

Validation of a multidisciplinary virtual reality (VR) robotic surgical curriculum

The objective is to identify whether trainees demonstrate improvement in a standardized knot-tying task as assessed by Global Evaluative Assessment of Robotic Skills (GEARS) score after completion of a virtual reality (VR) robotic curriculum. An IRB-exempt prospective study was conducted with surgical trainees from August 2021 to February 2023. Participants initially performed a baseline robotic suturing task in which they were instructed to tie interrupted square knots in 10 min. Participants then completed a virtual reality simulation curriculum involving 23 exercises until they achieved 90% proficiency on all tasks. Participants then repeated the suturing task. Pre- and post-curriculum suturing tasks were recorded, de-identified, and scored by expert graders using a GEARS score. Trainees from three academic centers were invited to participate. Medical students (MS1-MS3) and surgical residents from gynecology, urology, and general surgery were invited to participate. Twenty-five trainees completed the pre-curriculum suturing task, the VR curriculum, and the post-curriculum suturing task. Trainees demonstrated significant improvement in their post-test GEARS score by 2.43 points (p < 0.05) and were able to tie three additional knots within 10 min after completion of the curriculum (p < 0.05). Trainees also demonstrated a faster time to complete first knot (114 s improvement, p < 0.05) after completion of the curriculum. All participants agreed or strongly agreed that completion of the robotic curriculum helped them feel more comfortable using the robotic console, and improved their robotic surgical skills. Surgical trainees and medical students with limited prior robotic surgical experience demonstrated objective improvement after completion of a standardized VR curriculum.

Healthcare students' prevention training in a sanitary service: analysis of health education interventions in schools of the Grenoble academy

BACKGROUND

The sanitary service is a mandatory prevention training programme for all French healthcare students. Students receive training and then have to design and carry out a prevention intervention with various populations. The aim of this study was to analyse the type of health education interventions carried out in schools by healthcare students from one university in order to describe the topics covered and the methods used.

METHOD

The 2021-2022 sanitary service of University Grenoble Alpes involved students in maieutic, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and physiotherapy. The study focused on students who intervened in school contexts. The intervention reports written by the students were read doubly by independent evaluators. Information of interest was collected in a standardised form.

RESULTS

Out of the 752 students involved in the prevention training program, 616 (82%) were assigned to 86 schools, mostly primary schools (58%), and wrote 123 reports on their interventions. Each school hosted a median of 6 students from 3 different fields of study. The interventions involved 6853 pupils aged between 3 and 18 years. The students delivered a median of 5 health prevention sessions to each pupil group and spent a median of 25 h (IQR: 19-32) working on the intervention. The themes most frequently addressed were screen use (48%), nutrition (36%), sleep (25%), harassment (20%) and personal hygiene (15%). All students used interactive teaching methods such as workshops, group games or debates that was addressed to pupils' psychosocial (mainly cognitive and social) competences. The themes and tools used differed according to the pupils' grade levels.

CONCLUSION

This study showed the feasibility of conducting health education and prevention activities in schools by healthcare students from five professional fields who had received appropriate training. The students were involved and creative, and they were focused on developing pupils' psychosocial competences.

Multidisciplinary Simulation Training Improves Surgical Resident Comfort With Airway Management

BACKGROUND

Airway management is an essential element of surgical training, but with fewer procedures performed during residency, simulation is crucial to fill educational gaps. We evaluated the effect of a multidisciplinary airway simulation on the comfort of general surgery residents in managing airways.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

All residents PGY 2-5 at a large academic general surgery residency program participated in a multidisciplinary airway management simulation. Precourse surveys evaluated self-perception of skills in three areas of airway management: surgical airway, basic ventilator strategies, and endotracheal intubation. Simulation consisted of didactic and procedural components and used high- and low-fidelity models including silicon airways, ventilators, porcine trachea, and airway adjuncts. Instruction was provided by anesthesia and otolaryngology faculty. Postcourse assessment was performed with a four-level Likert questionnaire. Results were analyzed using paired t-tests.

RESULTS

Of the 19 residents surveyed, 37% of residents had 1-5 h and 32% had 5-10 h of prior airway instruction. Significant increases in mean comfort were observed across all three studied areas. Residents reported increased comfort performing a surgical airway (1.16 versus 1.95), P < 0.0001, and troubleshooting ventilator issues (1.59 versus 2.16), P < 0.0001. Comfort regarding overall airway management including endotracheal intubation demonstrated similar improvement (1.84 versus 2.32), P = 0.02. Subgroup analysis by PGY level showed the greatest impact on comfort level in junior residents.

CONCLUSIONS

Multidisciplinary airway simulation can be effectively implemented in a general surgery training program and positively affect trainee comfort with these techniques, particularly among junior residents.

Developing and pilot testing a comprehensive health literacy communication training for health professionals in three European countries

OBJECTIVE

Skills to address different health literacy problems are lacking among health professionals. We sought to develop and pilot test a comprehensive health literacy communication training for various health professionals in Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands.

METHODS

Thirty health professionals participated in the study. A literature review focused on evidence-informed training-components. Focus group discussions (FGDs) explored perspectives from seventeen professionals on a prototype-program, and feedback from thirteen professionals following pilot-training. Pre-post questionnaires assessed self-rated health literacy communication skills.

RESULTS

The literature review yielded five training-components to address functional, interactive and critical health literacy: health literacy education, gathering and providing information, shared decision-making, enabling self-management, and supporting behaviour change. In FGDs, professionals endorsed the prototype-program and reported that the pilot-training increased knowledge and patient-centred communication skills in addressing health literacy, as shown by self-rated pre-post questionnaires.

CONCLUSION

A comprehensive training for health professionals in three European countries enhances perceived skills to address functional, interactive and critical health literacy.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

This training has potential for wider application in education and practice in Europe.

Incorporating Trainees' Development into a Multidisciplinary Training Model for Integrated Behavioral Health Within a Pediatric Continuity Clinic

Integrated behavioral and mental health systems of care for children require multidisciplinary team members to have specific competencies and knowledge of the other disciplines' strengths and practice needs. Training models for multidisciplinary professionals should consider the developmental level of trainees. The authors describe a model of flexible scaffolding, increasing intensity, and depth of experience as trainees gain skills and knowledge.

A feasible, acceptable and effective way to teach health care workers in low- and middle-income countries a method to manage acutely ill obstetric women

Maternal mortality is unacceptably high in Sub Saharan Africa, which accounts for 56% of all maternal deaths (WHO, 2012). Most maternal deaths are avoidable but with prompt recognition and timely intervention it is not inevitable that acute or critical maternal illness deteriorates to fatality (Firth and Ttendo, 2012). This paper discusses a project to provide multidisciplinary training in Maternal-Acute Illness Management (M-AIM) in a low resource setting in order to actively address the third delay to women accessing emergency obstetric care: prompt receipt of effective care on reaching a medical facility.

Training Health Professionals for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Care in Nigeria: A Qualitative Analysis

There is no organised training and service for CAMH in Nigeria. A 3-day course in child mental health aimed at multidisciplinary health professionals was developed and evaluated to inform future training. Developing the course involved multi-professional consultation. Course evaluation involved the completion of questionnaires by delegates (present from 5 of the 6 geopolitical zones of Nigeria) before and after the training. Training needs expressed include skills to manage CAMH problems in their own context, greater understanding of normal child development and strategies to train others. Most participants reported that their expectations were met and would affect their practice especially with regard to collaboration.