LSU Health Sciences Center research to improve pati...( Sheila W. Chauvin M.Ed. Ph.D. Direc...),Health

Sheila W. Chauvin, M.Ed., Ph.D., Director of the Office of Medical Education Research and Development at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, has been awarded a half million dollar grant to evaluate the influence of simulation on enhancing teamwork and a culture of patient safety in the operating room environment. The project was funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Dr. Chauvin's project takes interdisciplinary team training to the actual hospital leaders and staff to enhance teamwork and patient safety in the surgical setting.

"This project builds upon our previous developments in the Isidore J. Cohn, Jr. Student Learning Center targeting teaching and assessment with high fidelity patient simulation," notes Dr. Chauvin. "Specifically, we will be evaluating a highly innovative training model that combines realistic mannequin-based simulation and patient scenarios and a mobile mock operating room with interdisciplinary teams at their own hospital site. Dr. John Paige, Assistant Professor of Surgery, and Dr. Valeriy Kozmenko, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, have contributed substantially to this innovative training model. Based on our review of the field, our LSUHSC team appears to be the first to accomplish this unique combination of teamwork and patient safety training strategies."

The Institute of Medicine estimated that medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death among Americans. Medical simulation involves scenarios in which real-life medical situations are re-created so that health care providers can practice new procedures and techniques before performing them on patients and potentially placing them at risk. "Equally important, this project will focus on examining the process of change and improvement and how the transfer of training to everyday practice is influenced by individual and organizational features within the actual hospital setting," says Chauvin
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Contact: Leslie Capo
lcapo@lsuhsc.edu
504-568-4806
Louisiana State University Health Science Center
15-Nov-2006