SAFER

SAFER Educational Goals

The goal of the SAFER program is to increase knowledge and awareness about sleep and fatigue among medical students and residents, and to help create a learning environment which maintains optimal performance and alertness. The first specific objective in achieving that goal was to develop the following educational curriculum module for medical professionals on sleep, fatigue, and alertness management and to make it available to every residency program in the country; the module was also designed to be easily adaptable to a variety of target audiences including medical students, residents, residency directors, hospital administrators, and “support staff” (other health care professional that work with medical trainees as well as for residents’ families). The SAFER curriculum was developed by a task force of individuals with diverse backgrounds and expertise in sleep medicine, medical education/curriculum development, and residency training programs headed by members of the AASM Board and AASM Medical School Education Committee, as well as resident representatives, and representatives from ACGME and the AMA. The SAFER program also stresses the importance of supporting balanced, evidence-based, and socially responsible policies regarding sleep, and sleep loss and fatigue in medical education settings, and provides standardized and empirically-based information, including strategies that have already been developed in other industries facing similar needs (transportation, aeronautics).

SAFER Curriculum Content

The basic content areas of the SAFER curriculum include:

1. principles of sleep and chronobiology
2. the impact of sleep loss and fatigue on medical trainees (mood, health and safety, work performance, medical education, medical errors)
3. myths and misconceptions about sleep loss and fatigue
4. a framework for developing strategies at the systems levels and at the individual level for addressing and managing sleep loss and fatigue

The 50 minute powerpoint presentation is designed to be given by non-sleep as well as sleep medicine faculty to a variety of target audiences, and to present a educational overview of the issues that is both accessible and pragmatic. Most of the key educational points are contained in the content of the slides themselves; the accompanying speaker's syllabus was developed to provide users with the empirical basis for the slide presentation content, and to supplement the information contained therein. The syllabus also contains a pre and post-test evaluation tool for assessment of educational goals and objectives. SAFER Task Force members: Judith Owens (Chair), Alon Avidan, Dewitt Baldwin, Andrew Chesson, Sandy Cook, Sue Harding, Steve Howard, Vibha Maheswaran, Ingrid Philibert, Raymond Rosen, Kingman Strohl, Michael Suk, Francine Wiest, and Phyllis Zee. AASM Staff: Jerry Barrett, Shelia Story