Actor feedback and rigorous monitoring: Essential quality assurance tools for testing behavioral interventions with simulation.

Introduction: Simulation is a powerful tool for training and evaluating clinicians. However, few studies have examined the consistency of actor performances during simulation based medical education (SBME). The Simulated Communication with ICU Proxies trial (ClinicalTrials.

Intensivists' Religiosity and Perceived Conflict During a Simulated ICU Family Meeting.

Context: Conflict is frequently reported by both clinicians and surrogate decision makers for adult patients in intensive care units. Because religious clinicians view religion as an important dimension of end-of-life care, we hypothesized that religious critical care attendings (intensivists) would be more comfortable and perceive less conflict when discussing a patient's critical illness with a religious surrogate.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess if religious intensivists are more or less likely to perceive conflict during a simulated family meeting than secular colleagues.

Evaluating Hospice and Palliative Medicine Education in Pediatric Training Programs.

Background: Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) competencies are of growing importance in training general pediatricians and pediatric sub-specialists. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) emphasized pediatric trainees should understand the "impact of chronic disease, terminal conditions and death on patients and their families." Currently, very little is known regarding pediatric trainee education in HPM.