A Mixed Methods Study of Senior Medical Student Help Calling in an Individual, Acute Care Simulation Experience

The ability to appropriately seek help is a key skill for medical students transitioning to residency. We designed a simulation activity for senior medical students and became interested in studying help calling behaviors and attitudes.

We collected quantitative data regarding help calling for 2 simulation cases and qualitative data using a survey. We undertook a structured thematic analysis based on grounded theory methodology. We identified and compared groups who did and did not call for help.

One hundred thirty-four students participated and 122 (91%) completed an evaluation. More students called for help without prompting in the second case (34/134, 25% in first case; 110/134, 82% in second case, P < 0.001). Most students did not call for help in the first case but called in the second case (81, 60%). Our qualitative analysis identified 5 themes: (1) students seek to avoid shame and burdening their team, (2) prior institutional simulation and testing experience may imprint help calling behaviors, (3) students view help calling primarily through an individual lens, (4) students overestimate the complexity of the help calling process, and (5) the simulation environment and intentional experimentation make it difficult to observe natural behavior. When compared with help callers, more non-help callers had phrases coded as "perception of expectations" (37% vs. 10%, P = 0.03).

Learners participating in simulation exercises designed to promote help-calling behaviors face training-based barriers related to shame and the desire for autonomy and simulation-based challenges related to assessment.