Teaching Psychiatric Emergencies Using Simulation: an Experience During the Boot Camp

The purpose of this study is to prepare fourth-year medical students to recognize psychiatric emergencies using simulation technology. The learning experience is accomplished during the boot camp activity designed to train fourth-year medical students in different competencies before transitioning to residency.

Ninety-eight fourth-year medical students at Paul L. Foster School of Medicine participated in the boot camp during the 2018-2019 academic year. The participation of the Department of Psychiatry was for a total of four full days divided into 3-h morning and 3-h afternoon sessions with the average of four students per hour per session. The use of high-fidelity simulation and standardized patients to recreate two different clinical scenarios representing acute psychiatric emergencies, followed by structured debriefing, was implemented. Pre- and post-qualitative surveys, which were electronically available via Qualtrics, intended to assess the effectiveness of the curriculum and course teaching modalities during the boot camp.

All participants reported improvement on levels of confidence in diagnosis and management of psychiatric emergencies compared with baseline. Overall a statistically significant increase in the Likert score was noted in the post-survey analysis.

Teaching psychiatric emergencies utilizing high-fidelity simulation and standardized patient encounters improved student confidence in several competencies. The increase in student confidence can potentially help the learner in transitioning better to residency.