Which radiology training is best for contrast management reactions, teamwork skills?

With considerable evidence from a study showing many cases where radiology staff members mismanage severe contrast reactions, a group of researchers set out to assess the performance of high fidelity hands-on (HO) and computer-based (CB) stimulation training for contrast reaction (CR) management and teamwork skills (TS) of interprofessional teams of radiologists and medical staff.

The researchers published Comparative Effectiveness of Hands-on Versus Computer Simulation–Based Training for Contrast Media Reactions and Teamwork Skills, in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

“Nurses, technologists, and radiology residents were randomized into 11 teams of three (one of each). Six teams underwent HO training and five underwent CB training for CR and TS. Participants took written tests before and after training and were further tested using a high-fidelity simulation scenario,” wrote Carolyn Wang, MD, assistant professor in the department of radiology at the University of Washington, et al.

Data suggests that the participants all scored nearly the same on written tests and improved after their training. HO teams did better on CR and made fewer errors in epinephrine administration than CB teams. Overall, the researchers concluded that HO training rated higher than CB as an educational tool for teaching CR and team communication skills.

“High-fidelity simulation can be used to both train and test interprofessional teams of radiologists, technologists, and nurses for both CR and TS and is more highly rated as an effective educational tool by participants than similar CB training. However, a single session of either type of training may be inadequate for mastering TS,” wrote Wang et al.