What is the POEM-SET programme?

POEM-SET also builds digital capacity of universities through the implementation of digital training and the creation of serious games and strengths multidisciplinary and intercultural training at the undergraduate level through the implementation of a European COIL programme and a summer school.

Health European institutions have always been investigating about different ways to improve patient safety and reduce the number of preventable medical errors. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, simulation-enhanced training has been widely implemented all around Europe to train professionals but also healthcare students to improve professional capabilities and patient safety.

However, undergraduate healthcare students from one curriculum often have little contact with students from other healthcare curriculums and little knowledge of their skills and competencies. Multidisciplinary and intercultural skill training is needed at the undergraduate level so that students, as future healthcare professionals, are ready to work in multidisciplinary and international teams. In addition, there is clear evidence of a mismatch between skills trained during undergraduate healthcare studies and the skills needed in professional settings in Europe. Undergraduate healthcare studies tend to focus on technical skills, but they need to shift towards non-technical skills.

As a result of those needs, the project POEM-SET emerged in November 2021, a three year project of higher education financed by the European Union with four objectives based in obstetric urgencies: training healthcare educators on how to develop simulation-enhanced training for undergraduate students focusing on non-technical skills (person centered care and interdisciplinary team work) through the implementation of three summer camps and the production of a methodological framework (1); Building digital capacity of universities through the implementation of digital training and the creation of serious games (2); Collecting strong data on the benefit of this serious game prior to on-site simulation (=blended-learning) to improve non-technical skills (3); And, finally, strengthening multidisciplinary and intercultural training at the undergraduate level through the implementation of a European COIL programme and a summer school (4).

Simulation enhanced training in obstetric emergencies provides an engaging environment in which students can practice high-stress medical decision making without jeopardizing patient safety. This way of learning outcomes of non-technical skills such as communication, leadership, decision-making, team working or prioritization. These skills are crucial in professional healthcare settings as multidisciplinary professionals, especially in emergency settings, to work as a team in order to improve patient safety.