A randomized controlled trial using insinuated standardized patients to assess residents' domestic violence skills...

Residents feel inadequately trained to treat domestic violence victims.

The purpose was to assess clinical skills of residents participating in a domestic violence workshop.

Twenty-seven internal medicine residents were randomized to receive one of two workshops (domestic violence or control workshop). Standardized patients were trained to two domestic violence cases (depressed; injured). The two cases were randomized and insinuated into each resident's continuity clinic at either 1 to 3 months or more than 3 months after the workshops.

The domestic violence workshop residents did not identify the standardized patients as domestic violence victims any more often than residents participating in the control workshop; 16/25 (64%) versus 13/23 (56%), p=.86. However, domestic violence workshop residents were more likely to score 75% or higher on the domestic violence checklist items compared to control workshop residents; 9/25 (36%) versus 2/23 (9%), p=.04.

Once a standardized patient was identified in clinic as a domestic violence victim, domestic violence workshop participating residents demonstrated better clinical skills than a control group.