Positive emotions for promoting quality improvement of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy for COVID-19: In situ interprofessional simulation

Aim

The requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment regardless of experience caused high levels of anxiety among healthcare professionals. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an in situ interprofessional simulation training conducted to improve readiness and preparedness for ECMO management of patients with COVID-19 at a non-high-volume ECMO centre.

Methods

Three emergency physicians, three clinical engineers and two nurses attended the 3-h simulation held at Hirosaki University Hospital in December 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The training comprised a 30-min briefing, a 1-h ECMO circuit change session, a 1-h in-hospital transfer simulation for CT and a 30-min debriefing. Before and after the training, participants completed an online survey of their emotions, based on the Japanese version of the Medical Emotion Scale (J-MES). Related-samples Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to assess potential changes in emotional responses before and after the simulation, and p < 0.05 was considered to indicate significance.

Results

Participants' positive deactivating emotions increased from a median of 3.3 (range, 2.0–4.5) before the simulation to 4.0 (range, 2.5–5.0) after the simulation (p = 0.02), which indicates favourable performance according to the control value theory of educational psychology. There was no statistically significant change in other emotional categories.

Conclusion

Participants' positive deactivating emotions increased significantly following an in situ ECMO simulation training, which indicates the efficacy of the training for improving the quality of ECMO management in patients with COVID-19.