• Pierre Montauban, Charannya Balakumar, Jaideep Rait, Prizzi Zarsadias, Sara Iqbal, Biju Aravind, Ashish Shrestha, Roland Fernandes, Ankur Shah, and Collaborators.
• General Surgery Department, William Harvey Hospital, Kennington Rd, Ashford, Kent, TN24 0LZ, United Kingdom. Electronic address: pierre.montauban1@nhs.net.
• Surg J R Coll Surg E. 2021 Oct 1; 19 (5): 279-286.

BackgroundEffective training is vital when facing viral outbreaks such as the SARS Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak of 2019. The objective of this study was to measure the impact of in-situ simulation on the confidence of the surgical teams of two hospitals in assessing and managing acutely unwell surgical patients who are high-risk or confirmed to have COVID-19.MethodsThis was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design. The surgical teams at each hospital participated in multi-disciplinary simulation sessions to explore the assessment and management of a patient requiring emergency surgery who is high risk for COVID-19. The participants were surveyed before and after receiving simulation training to determine their level of confidence on a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for the premise stated in each of the nine questions in the survey, which represented multiple aspects of the care of these patients.Results27 participants responded the pre-simulation survey and 24 the one post-simulation. The level of confidence (VAS score) were statistically significantly higher for all nine questions after the simulation. Specific themes were identified for further training and changes in policy.ConclusionIn-situ simulation is an effective training method. Its versatility allows it to be set up quickly as rapid-response training in the face of an imminent threat. In this study, it improved the preparedness of two surgical teams for the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.Crown Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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