Using Simulation to Design Choreography for a Cardiopulmonary Arrest Response

• Simulation is an excellent collaborative problem-solving and design tool.
• First responders must work synergistically and efficiently together.
• Care teams should have a shared mental model of the goals and choreography of the team.
• The ideal choreography provides a greater sense of confidence when responding to a cardiac arrest.
• A video of the ideal choreography–is helpful in visualizing the ideal nursing response.

This article illustrates the use of simulation as a collaborative problem-solving and design tool using resuscitation as an exemplar. To address the issue of poor-quality in-hospital resuscitation efforts, a research study was designed to assess methods of improving nurses' retention of cardiopulmonary resuscitation priorities. Central to this project was developing choreography to help nurses' work synergistically to achieve the American Heart Association goals for resuscitation. The study team used simulation to develop and refine the ideal steps for the first few minutes of a cardiac arrest. The resultant video of this choreography was used as a core component of the training in the research study.