An Adult Autism Training With Case Studies and Standardized Patient Encounters for Internal Medicine and Family...

Autistic adults are significantly more likely than non-autistic peers to have many physical and mental health conditions and unmet health care needs. One major barrier to meeting their needs is the scarcity of adult primary care physicians who are prepared to care for them.

We partnered with autistic adults to develop "Promoting Residents' Excellence in Patient-centered cARE (PREPARE) for Autistic Adults," a 5-hour training. It includes 6 asynchronous lectures, 6 synchronous case studies, and 2 virtual standardized patient experiences. Residents (N = 29) at a large midwestern US academic medical center completed a pre- and postcourse evaluation and qualitative interviews to report their self-efficacy, attitudes, perceived behavioral control, intention to treat in the future, and knowledge about caring for autistic adult patients.

The training had medium to very large effects on improving residents' self-efficacy (d = 2.98), perceived behavioral control (d = 1.08), and knowledge (d = 0.44), but did not improve attitudes toward or intention to care for autistic adults, likely due to ceiling effects. Resident feedback indicated an appreciation for the active learning elements of the training, insights from faculty facilitators and other residents, and the growth they experienced as practitioners.

This multifaceted training provides active learning opportunities in a low-stakes environment to increase residents' confidence in providing primary care for autistic adults. Future efforts include integration of this training into residency curricula at our institution and others.