Emergency medicine resident crisis resource management ability: a simulation-based longitudinal study.

<p><b>BACKGROUND: </b>Simulation has been identified as a means of assessing resident physicians&#39; mastery of technical skills, but there is a lack of evidence for its utility in longitudinal assessments of residents&#39; non-technical clinical abilities. We evaluated the growth of crisis resource management (CRM) skills in the simulation setting using a validated tool, the Ottawa Crisis Resource Management Global Rating Scale (Ottawa GRS). We hypothesized that the Ottawa GRS would reflect progressive growth of CRM ability throughout residency.</p><p><b>METHODS: </b>Forty-five emergency medicine residents were tracked with annual simulation assessments between 2006 and 2011. We used mixed-methods repeated-measures regression analyses to evaluate elements of the Ottawa GRS by level of training to predict performance growth throughout a 3-year residency.</p><p><b>RESULTS: </b>Ottawa GRS scores increased over time, and the domains of leadership, problem solving, and resource utilization, in particular, were predictive of overall performance. There was a significant gain in all Ottawa GRS components between postgraduate years 1 and 2, but no significant difference in GRS performance between years 2 and 3.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS: </b>In summary, CRM skills are progressive abilities, and simulation is a useful modality for tracking their development. Modification of this tool may be needed to assess advanced learners&#39; gains in performance.</p>