Establishment of a Mandatory National Simulation Program for Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship Training

Background: In 2020, the scientific council of the Israeli Medical Association approved a National Simulation Program (NSP) for Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) fellows as a mandatory component of their training curriculum. The study aimed to outline the NSP's development, its components, and assess PEM fellows' self-reported perception of knowledge and confidence acquisition following participation. Methods: The NSP comprised 9 simulation days over 2.5 years, covering various PEM emergencies with 34 novel scenarios and 4 technical skill stations. After each session, PEM fellows completed a self-assessment using a 5-point Likert scale to evaluate the NSP's impact on their knowledge and confidence in managing complex PEM scenarios. Results: From July 2020 to February 2023, 197 participants attended 9 simulation days, representing 59 PEM fellows from all 14 different PEM departments across Israel offering PEM fellowship programs. PEM fellows rated the NSP's contribution to improving abilities and confidence in leading resuscitation teams according to Crisis Resource Management (CRM) principles with an average of 4.7/5 (±0.7) and 3.9/5 (±0.6), respectively, on a 5-point Likert scale. They also rated NSP's contribution to improving clinical knowledge and scenario management abilities with averages of 4.8/5 (±0.5) and 4.7/5 (±0.6), respectively. Conclusions: We demonstrated that it is possible to successfully establish and implement an NSP in Israel. Our findings indicate that the NSP enhances PEM fellow's perception of knowledge and confidence in managing complex PEM conditions. The NSP is deemed valuable for training PEM fellows in Israel.