Burmese Co-sleeping Simulation

Co-sleeping is a common practice in many cultures, like the Burmese, yet it poses several risks on the infant such as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and unintentional suffocation. Although co-sleeping is considered a norm in some cultures, it can make safe sleep conversations difficult for pediatricians. With this in mind, we created a co-sleeping simulation for the second- and third-year pediatric residents at a large academic institution in partnership with the local Burmese community. The scenario involved a trained Burmese actress who practiced co-sleeping with her infant and provided the residents a supportive simulated space to engage in safe sleep conversations with a member of our refugee community. The simulation focused not only on the resident’s preparedness to counsel on safe sleep but also to evaluate their self-perceived cultural humility. In order to analyze the residents’ level of cultural humility, we distributed pre- and post-simulation surveys containing questions from the Multidimensional Cultural Humility Scale (MCHS). Fifty-seven residents participated in this study. Overall, the residents had significant increases in self-perceived cultural humility Furthermore, all residents reported learning skills to engage in difficult conversations with diverse patient populations and being more prepared to engage in safe sleep counseling in the future.

Supervisor: Megan S. McHenry, MD
Department: Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health at Riley Hospital for Children