Improving skills and education in intensive care medicine

In the last decade two main undertakings have transformed education across all medicalspecialities, namely: (I) the introduction of teaching and assessing “soft skills”; (II) the global use of digitaleducation and digitalised health care delivery. This review will look at the impact of these two events inteaching competencies in the field of intensive care medicine (ICM). ICM is a relatively new discipline andtraining in ICM is variable across Europe. The framework of competency based training in ICM in Europehas been defined by the Competency Based Training programme in ICM for Europe and outside regions(CoBaTrICE, www.cobatrice.org) in some countries and by local National Training Programs in others.There are also some European countries that still use traditional training methods and do not undertakecompetency based training. Whilst traditional training methods have been criticized, the implementationof competency based training has never been followed by international research to prove its benefit. Inthe CoBaTrICE curriculum, there are several competences that relate to professionalism, leadership andsoft skills. Communication, professionalism, negotiation and team working are all essential skills to theintensive care doctor. This review will suggest new methodologies and areas for development in teachingand assessing soft skills. The digital era represents the second challenge in education in ICM. Learning withthe aid of technology seems beneficial and this might relate to the fact that adults learn (andragogy) bestusing spontaneous learning. Digital education mediated by several tools (blogs, webinars, social media) canfacilitate spontaneous learning and thus adult education. Challenges of digitalised education are related toquality control issues, rapid adoption of literature into clinical practice without the presence of a systematicrigorous peer review process. Finally, research has highlighted the benefit of technologies that help cliniciansto manage the exponential growth in medical information. Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) canimprove the quality of patient care and improve patient safety. This review will explore improvements andprojects relating to use of CDSSs in the field of ICM.