Chest
Original ResearchThe Emotional and Cognitive Impact of Unexpected Simulated Patient Death: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Section snippets
Participants
Participants were 116 final-year medical students at the University of Calgary (graduating class of 2011). We have a 3-year undergraduate curriculum of which the first 2 years comprise integrated systems courses and the final year is a clinical clerkship. This study took place during a simulation training session that was part of the clinical skills in clerkship curriculum, which runs throughout the clerkship year. The Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board at the University of Calgary approved
Effect of Unexpected Patient Death on Emotions and Cognitive Load
After debriefing on the simulation scenario, the mean subjective ratings for items assessing emotion tended to be lower (ie, more negative) for the training groups where the simulated patient died (Fig 2). The difference was significant for four of the eight items: nervous/relaxed (P = .04, d = 0.38), upset/contented (P < .001, d = 0.69), sad/happy (P < .001, d = 0.72), and depressed/elated (P = .008, d = 0.51). Participants in the training groups where the simulated patient died also reported
Discussion
The setting for this study was a simulation training scenario in which the learning objective was for final-year medical students to diagnose and manage a patient with an altered level of consciousness due to toxin ingestion. The study objective was, however, quite different from the learning objective. Instead, the research focus was on the impact of a negative emotional experience in the form of unexpected patient death on learning outcomes from a simulation training session. Although no
Acknowledgments
Author contributions: Dr McLaughlin had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Dr Fraser: contributed to the study design, data collection, and approval of the fi nal version of the manuscript.
Dr Huffman: contributed to the study design, data collection, and approval of the fi nal version of the manuscript.
Dr Ma: contributed to the study design, data collection, and approval of the fi nal version
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Funding/Support: The authors have reported to CHEST that no funding was received for this study.
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