Resuscitation Leadership Education: A Needs Assessment of Emergency Medicine Residencies

TL;DR

This study assesses how often emergency medicine residency programs in the US teach resuscitation leadership and finds that most do not offer formal training in this critical skill.

Contribution

The study provides the first comprehensive needs assessment of resuscitation leadership education in US emergency medicine residencies.

Findings

Only 23.8% of responding programs reported having formal resuscitation leadership curricula.

There was significant variation in the content and methods of the existing curricula.

Most programs offered external leadership development opportunities instead of formal resuscitation leadership training.

Abstract

Effective resuscitation leadership is a critical competency for emergency physicians, with evidence correlating strong leadership with improved team performance and patient outcomes during resuscitations. Despite its importance, the extent and nature of structured resuscitation leadership education in emergency medicine (EM) residency training remains unclear.

We conducted a voluntary, anonymous, needs assessment survey of United States (US) EM residency programs between August–October 2021. The survey assessed for the presence, content, and methods of formal resuscitation leadership curricula within these programs. We used descriptive statistics to analyze responses.

Of the 261 US EM residency programs invited to participate, 80 responded (30.7%). Nineteen programs (23.8%) reported offering resuscitation leadership training through formal curricula, with considerable variation in both educational methods and content. Additionally, 68.4% of responding programs offered external generalized leadership development opportunities through partnerships with hospitals, universities, community organizations, and research entities.

A minority of surveyed US EM residency programs incorporate formal resuscitation leadership training into their curricula with significant variance in curricular content and educational methods. Given the critical role of resuscitation leadership in EM, our findings highlight the need for further research to evaluate the effectiveness of existing curricula and educational approaches.