Successful implementation of a rater training program for medical students to evaluate simulated pediatric emergencies

Introduction: Simulation-based training is increasingly used in pediatrics to teach technical skills, teamwork, and team communication, and to improve potential deficiencies in pediatric emergency care. Team per-formance must be observed, analyzed, and evaluated by trained raters. The structured training of medical students for the assessment of sim-ulated pediatric emergencies has not yet been investigated.Methods: We developed a rater training program for medical students to assess guideline adherence, teamwork, and team communication in simulated pediatric emergencies. Interrater reliability was measured at each training stage using Kendall tau coefficients.Results: In 10 out of 15 pairs of raters interrater reliability was moderate to high (tau>0.4), whereas it was low in the remaining 5 pairs of raters.Discussion: The interrater reliability showed good agreement between medical students and expert raters at the end of the rater training pro-gram. Medical students can be successfully involved in the assessment of guideline adherence as well as teamwork and team communication in simulated pediatric emergencies.