PEDIATRIC CODE WHITE! – a Simulation Pilot with Professional Health Sciences Learners

Agitation, an emotional state of increased restlessness, may manifest and exacerbate in patients under stressful circumstances, including youths. Navigating these situations require healthcare professionals to effectively collaborate in an interprofessional team. Pre-licensure students often feel unprepared to mitigate these situations. The Pediatric Code White! interprofessional educational (IPE) simulation experience was developed to address this need.Implementation: Pediatric Code White is a 2h in-person, IPE workshop, where learners alternate between observing and participating in a simulated scenario of caring for a youth who was agitated. After each simulation, learners debriefed with IPE facilitators on means to improve interprofessional collaboration.Evaluation plan: Pre and post simulation surveys collected learner demographics, preparedness and comfort levels in collaborating to work with youth who are agitated. The survey questions were informed by the workshop objectives and 2024 Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative IPE Framework. Surveys utilized 5-point Likert scales (1 =not very prepared; 5 = very prepared) and open-text questions. Quantitative responses were reported as medians with ranges, counts and proportions, where appropriate. Open text feedback was compiled to identify subthemes to describe learners’ experiences.Outcome(s) and significance: Ten learners from five disciplines (nursing, physician assistant, child life, occupational therapy and physiotherapy) participated and completed all surveys. Learners were in their first (n=7) or upper years of study (n=3). The proportion of learners who felt prepared to recognize signs of agitation, maintain personal safety and de-escalate increased after the workshop, as did preparedness for interprofessional collaboration.

Caring for youths who are agitated can be a challenge. This simulation experience provided learners a safe environment to develop knowledge and skills in youth psychosocial care. These findings contribute to the growing support of using simulation to prepare learners to de-escalate and work collaboratively with a patient-centered approach to improve care.