Improving medical students' responses to emergencies with a simulated cross-cover paging curriculum

New residents are often unprepared to respond to medical emergencies. To address this gap, we implemented a simulated cross-cover paging curriculum. All senior medical students enrolled in a required specialty-specific (internal medicine, procedures, emergency medicine [EM], obstetrics and gynecology [OBGYN], family medicine and pediatrics) residency preparation course (RPC) in 2020-2021 participated. Students received 3-6 specialty-specific pages that represented an urgent change in clinical status about a simulated patient. For each page, students first called a standardized registered nurse (SRN) to ask additional questions, then recommended next steps in evaluation and management. The SRNs delivered immediate verbal feedback, delayed written feedback, and graded clinical performance using a weighted rubric. Some items were categorized as 'must do,' which represented the most clinically important actions. Trends in clinical performance over time were analyzed using the Jonckheere-Terpstra test. Of the 315 eligible students, 265 (84.1%) consented for their data to be included in the analysis. Clinical performance improved from a median (interquartile range) of 59.4% (46.9%, 75.0%) on case 1 to 80.0% (68.0%, 86.7%) on case 6 (p < .001). The percentage of 'must do' items improved significantly, from 69.2% (53.8, 81.8%) to 80.0% (66.7%, 88,9%) (p < .001). Scores improved over time for all specialty courses except for EM and OB/GYN. Surveyed students largely found this to be a valuable addition to the RPC curriculum with a 4.4 overall rating (1 = poor to 5 = excellent). This novel curriculum fills important gaps in the educational transition between medical school and residency. The simulated paging platform is adaptable and generalizable to learners entering different residency specialties.