'I see you're angry': actor-reported anger scores

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Communication Skills Training
• Simulation-Based Learning

Background:

• Role-play is crucial for teaching medical students essential communication skills.
• Effective debriefing is central to learning in communication skills training.
• Challenging communication scenarios require innovative debriefing tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of using actor-reported anger scores in role-play simulations.
• To evaluate the utility of anger scores as a tool to stimulate debriefing.
• To enhance the learning process for medical students in challenging communication scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Final-year medical students participated in role-play scenarios with actors portraying angry relatives.
• Actors recorded their anger levels on a 10-point Likert scale at 1-minute intervals during the 10-minute scenarios.
• Tutors graphically presented anger scores over time, facilitating debriefing discussions on communication strategies.

Main Results:

• Actor-reported anger scores generated visual aids that stimulated discussion during debriefing.
• Graphs of anger fluctuations highlighted key moments for analysis and strategy development.
• Both students and actors reported positive feedback, with no interference in scenario fidelity.

Conclusions:

• Actor-reported anger scores offer a quick, simple, and cost-effective method for enhancing communication debriefing.
• This visual aid effectively stimulates discussion and strategy development in challenging medical communication scenarios.
• The method supports improved learning outcomes for medical students in simulated patient interactions.