Breaking the Rules: Texas Children's Rapid Response Workshop Revolutionizes Pediatric Code Caller and Receiver Training
In this episode, Erin Carn-Bennett hosts and interviews Dr Erin Kritz and Anne Jeffers from Texas Children's Hospital share their innovative rapid response system, rapid response workshop simulation training approaches, and insights into improving pediatric resuscitation and safety culture.
Anne Jeffers is an Assistant Professor with Baylor College of Medicine and a pediatric acute care nurse practitioner in the pediatric ICU at Texas Children's Hospital as well as the Associate Medical Director for the Rapid Response System and (imminently assuming the role of) Associate Medical Director of Simulation for the pediatric ICU at Texas Children's Hospital.
Erin Kritz is an Assistant Professor with Baylor College of Medicine and is a pediatric cardiac intensivist as well as the Medical Director for the Rapid Response System at Texas Children's Hospital. She is also the co-chair of the hospital system's CPR committee. She has extensive expertise in pediatric emergency response systems and events, quality improvement, and patient safety.
The Texas Children's Hospital rapid response system covers 4 hospital campuses and approximately 1300 Rapid Response Team events (separate from code activations) annually. As Texas Children's Hospital is the largest pediatric health system in the United States, it is also one of the largest pediatric rapid response systems worldwide. The rapid response workshop was initially created about 10 years ago by Dr. Aarti Bavare and nurse practitioner Jenilea Thomas as a way to provide dynamic, multidisciplinary training in pediatric rapid response.
A large part of the workshop is two high fidelity, high risk low frequency event simulations, as well as a low fidelity communications focused simulation. What makes it particularly effective is that it is for both callers and responders and puts participants in both roles, allowing everyone to experience the challenges of both sides of keeping decompensating patients safe.
In recent years, Anne and Erin have further adapted the workshop for specific patient populations that may present differently, such as a neutropenic oncology patient who may not mount a fever in the setting of severe infection. At the WFPICCS pre conference workshop 26th September 2026 Anne and Erin are taking the knowledge and experience acquired over the years and have created a 'train the trainer' workshop where healthcare professionals from all disciplines can learn how to create or improve existing rapid response systems from the ground up.
Attendees to the WFPICCS workshop should prepare to be intellectually challenged and learn about a new and innovative simulation approach that rewrites traditional simulation rules and has impressive clinical, cultural and organizational data impacts.
IPSS is incredibly proud to have hosted work on the Rapid Response Workshop at Rome IPSSW May 2026 and have been a part of the story to support Erin and Anne on this ongoing and evolving innovation journey.
The Rapid Response Workshop meets a huge educational need-training code response teams alongside ward clinical staff. The outcomes speak for themselves clinically, organizationally and culturally. Not only do they not avoid bias of different department clinical staff members, they lean into it respectfully, use it to aid building psychological safety for participants in their course with light humor.
The data captured so far backs up transforming mindsets, improving clinical competence, confidence and patient safety.
As experienced simulationists, yet new International Pediatric Simulation Society (IPSS) members and IPSSW attendees since 2024, Erin and Anne share key insights into why you should join IPSS and what they have noticed as new members to our international pediatric simulation community!
Keywords: pediatric resuscitation, rapid response, simulation training, safety culture, healthcare education, pediatric ICU, CPR coaching, interdepartmental simulation, Texas Children's Hospital, WFPICCS 2026 Melbourne Australia.
Sign up to attend Erin and Anne’s workshop at WFPICCS 2026 here!
https://www.wfpiccs2026intensivecareasm.com/workshops/
W11 on Saturday, September 26 2026
Key topics
Rapid response system development and evolution
Simulation training for crisis resource management
Role of CPR coaches in resuscitation
Interdepartmental simulation and culture change
Data and outcomes of simulation-based interventions
Training strategies for low-resource settings
Global collaboration and knowledge sharing in pediatric care
Key Quotes:
"Everyone supports and lifts each other up" (IPSS)
"Training made us recognize sick patients earlier"
"CPR coach as a metric of high-quality CPR"
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Erin and Anne's work at Texas Children's
01:25 Background of Erin Kritz and Anne Jeffers
03:44 Getting into simulation: personal stories and motivations
05:00 The role of simulation in emergency response training
08:58 How IPSS influenced their work and collaboration
14:25 Overview of the rapid response workshop and training program
20:30 Impact and outcomes of simulation training on patient safety
23:48 Adapting training for different hospital systems and needs
29:54 Upcoming presentation at WFPICCS Melbourne
32:40 Framework and roles of CPR coaches in practice
40:26 Quality control and role of CPR coaches during resuscitation
43:27 Future directions and global collaboration in pediatric critical careResources
World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies (WFPICCS) - https://wfpicc.org/
Texas Children's Hospital - https://www.texaschildrens.org/
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This podcast was made possible by the IPSS Podcast Subcommittee.
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https://www.wfpiccs2026intensivecareasm.com/workshops/