Lumbar puncture training using simulation-based educational strategies: Experience in a clinical pediatric residency

Pediatricians should acquire multiple skills during their professional training, including procedural skills. Skill acquisition requires knowledge on theoretical bases, direct observation and, lastly, supervised repetitive practice. Training using simulators allows to learn procedures in a controlled setting, ensuring patients' safety, integrating this as a learning stage prior to the actual contact with patients. Here we report on the teaching experience of a simulated lumbar puncture procedure. Training was provided to 112 first year pediatric residents who entered Hospital Prof. Dr. Juan P. Garrahan in the 2013-2014 period. Educational contents included communication with parents regarding the procedure, material preparation, compliance with biosafety standards, sepsis and general patient care, puncture and subsequent cerebrospinal fluid collection, and specimen collection. Strategies included, in a sequential order, the introduction of theoretical aspects using the bibliography and audiovisual resources available at the hospital's online campus and subsequent practice of lumbar puncture in a 3-month-old infant phantom on a lateral recumbent position that allowed to make a puncture and collect cerebrospinal fluid. At each training session, the level of confidence was measured before and after the procedure, and a checklist was developed to verify an adequate compliance with each step of the procedure. The simulated lumbar puncture training model has been introduced as an educational strategy of our Pediatric Residency Program.