An International Virtual COVID-19 Critical Care Training Forum for Healthcare Workers

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Alexander Cypro, VA San Diego Healthcare System; Cameron W McGuire, VA San Diego Healthcare System; Mark Rolfsen, VA San Diego Healthcare System; Neal Jones, VA San Diego Healthcare System; Nirav G Shah, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB); Sushma Cribbs, Emory University; Viren Kaul, SUNY Upstate Medical University; Christine M Bojanowski, Tulane University; Isabel Pedraza, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; Lauren Lynch, American Thoracic Society; Liz Guzman, American Thoracic Society; Eileem Larsson, American Thoracic Society; Laura EC Alexander, VA San Diego Healthcare System
• Language: English
• Date: 2021-06-01
• Publisher: American Thoracic Society
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2021 by the American Thoracic Society
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.34197/ats-scholar.2020-0154IN
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: ATS Scholar
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 2
• Start Page: 278
• End Page: 286
• Keywords: critical care; COVID-19; virtual platform; acute respiratory distress syndrome; medical education

Abstract

Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic resulted in redeployment of non-critical care-trained providers to intensive care units across the world. Concurrently, traditional venues for delivery ofmedical education faced major disruptions. The need for a virtual forum to fill knowledge gaps for healthcare workers caring for patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was apparent in the early stages of the pandemic. Objective: The weekly, open-accessCOVID-19 Critical Care Training Forum (CCCTF) organized by the American Thoracic Society (ATS) provided a global audience access to timely content relevant to their learning needs. The goals of the forum were threefold: to aid healthcare providers in assessment and treatment of patients with COVID-19, to reduce provider anxiety, and to disseminate best practices. Methods: The first 13 ATS CCCTF sessions streamed live from April to July 2020. Structured debriefs followed each session and participant feedback was evaluated in planning of subsequent sessions. A second set of 14 sessions streamed from August to November 2020. Content experts were recruited from academic institutions across the United States. Results: As of July 2020, the ATS CCCTF had 2,494 live participants and 7,687 downloads for a total of 10,181 views. The majority of participants had both completed training (58.6%) and trained in critical care (53.8%). Physicians made up a majority (82.2%) of the audience that spanned the globe (61% were international attendees). Conclusion: We describe the rapid and successful implementation of an open-access medical education forum to address training and knowledge gaps among healthcare personnel caring for patients with COVID-19.