Mrs Amanda Maroon1, Dr Amber Seigel1,2,3
1NETS NSW, 2Royal North Shore Hospital, 3University of Sydney
Biography:
Amanda Maroon is the Nurse Educator at NETS NSW and retrieval nurse since 2014. She previously worked in ED, NICU & PICU at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. She is passionate about providing quality and safe neonatal and paediatric critical care in transport. Amanda is currently invested in developing a collaborative multidisciplinary training program and is particularly interested in simulation training. She enjoys the challenge of working in this unique environment, as it requires creativity to balance the challenge between education and service delivery.
Dr Amber Seigel holds joint staff specialist appointments at NETS NSW and Royal North Shore Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Amber is the previous Director of Clinical Training at NETS and is passionate about clinical education, communication and teamwork. Amber is privileged to partner with Amanda Maroon, Nurse Educator, in leading innovations in NETS retrieval team education and training.
Abstract:
The NSW Newborn and Paediatric Emergency Transport Service (NETS) delivers critical care to patients from 23 weeks gestation to 16 years of age. Medical and nursing orientation programs have historically been siloed, with limited explicit in-house training in human factors.
Critical review of nursing and medical curricula informed the development of a shared program with human factor training incorporated via didactic teaching, augmented by applying a human factor lens to case-based discussions, retrieval practice sessions and the development of retrieval-focussed neonatal and paediatric simulation training days. Simulation training refinement was informed by participant feedback, faculty development by a performance coach and master debriefers, and faculty led self-reflection at the conclusion of each simulation day.
Since February 2024, the program has been refined over three PDSA cycles. Simulation days initially had mixed success. Simulations were designed as Zone 3 in order to focus on human factors. However, scenario debriefs did not transition beyond clinical management, with learners observed to be overwhelmed by extraneous cognitive load. We introduced several interventions to optimise learning: redesign as Zone 2 scenarios; in-advance provision of pre-reading, schedule detailing scenario description, and participant role allocation; and consistent faculty and faculty roles. Faculty and participant feedback confirmed benefit. The reduction in extraneous cognitive load was evidenced by scenario debriefs moving beyond the clinical, extending to discussion of relevant human factors and overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants.
Human factor training has successfully been incorporated into the NETS retrieval orientation program, with future plans to run joint simulation training with the aeromedical service.