Affiliation:
1. Department of Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff CF14 4XN, UK
2. Department of Anaesthetics, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF14 4XN, UK
Abstract
Background. In this pilot study, we evaluated tip collisions against three commonly used measures of fibreoptic scope handling skills. Methods. Seventy-seven anaesthetists were recruited to perform a standardized task on an Oxford Box and a modified AirSim manikin. Collision count was correlated against time to scope placement, a global rating scale score, and up-to-date fibreoptic experience. Results. Strong and moderate correlations were found between collision count and task completion time for the Oxford Box (ρ = 0.730, P < 0.0001) and AirSim manikin (ρ = 0.405, P < 0.0001), respectively. Moderate correlation was found between collision count and global rating scale score for the Oxford Box (ρ = −0.545, P < 0.0001) and AirSim manikin (ρ = −0.500, P < 0.0001). Mild and moderate correlations were found between collision count and fibreoptic experience on the Oxford Box (ρ = −0.240, P = 0.041) and AirSim manikin (ρ = −0.423, P < 0.0001), respectively. Conclusions. This study infers that collision count may be used as a measure of fibreoptic scope handling skills in simulation training. Using this outcome in addition to other measures of performance may improve accuracy and precision of fibreoptic scope placement.