How to HEEAL: A Patient and Peer-Centric Simulation Curriculum for Medical Error Disclosure.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Patient Safety
• Healthcare Communication

Background:

• Medical errors have significant emotional and psychological impacts on patients and providers.
• A lack of standardized medical curricula for error disclosure creates a critical educational gap.
• The HEEAL (honesty/empathy/education/apology-awareness/lessen chance for future errors) curriculum is a novel approach to address this deficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the HEEAL curriculum in improving medical error disclosure skills among medical students.
• To assess changes in medical knowledge, confidence, and attitudes towards disclosing medical errors.
• To provide a standardized training module for medical students transitioning to residency.

Main Methods:

• A 6-hour, two-part workshop combining didactic sessions and standardized patient (SP) simulations with rapid cycle deliberate practice (RCDP).
• The curriculum covered both provider-patient and provider-provider (peer) error disclosure scenarios.
• Learner skills were assessed via summative simulations, knowledge through pre/post multiple-choice questions, and confidence/attitude using a revised Barriers to Error Disclosure Assessment tool.

Main Results:

• Fourteen medical students participated in the pilot study.
• Statistically significant improvements were observed in medical knowledge (p = .01), peer-disclosure skills (p = .001), and confidence in error disclosure (p < .001).
• While patient-disclosure skills showed improvement, it did not reach statistical significance (p = .05).

Conclusions:

• The HEEAL curriculum effectively addresses the need for structured training in medical error disclosure.
• Participants demonstrated enhanced knowledge, skills, and confidence in handling medical errors.
• The curriculum is recommended for medical students to better prepare them for residency training and practice.