Evaluation of a Gatekeeper Training Program

University of Manitoba

Status: Completed

Conditions: Suicide

Treatments: Other: ASIST

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01252927

H2009:073

Details and patient eligibility

About

The main objective of the proposed study is to evaluate the efficacy of a gatekeeper training suicide intervention program, Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), in improving medical students' knowledge about suicide intervention, impact of attitudes on someone at risk for suicide and competent use of intervention skills to recognize risk and intervene effectively compared to medical education as usual. This research project will be undertaken using a randomized-controlled trial design. Questionnaires and objective structured clinical examinations using simulated patients will be completed at three time points: 1) before training, 2) after training, and 3) at one year following the training. Medical students' clinical skills in recognizing risk and intervening with simulated patients, as well as knowledge about suicide intervention and the impact of attitudes on someone at risk for suicide will be evaluated.

Full description

The current proposal plans to implement and evaluate a secondary suicide intervention skills training program (gatekeeper training) in medical school students in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The main objective of the current proposal is to evaluate the effectiveness of a gatekeeper training program, Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), in improving medical students' intervention skills with suicidal patients compared to training as usual. Secondary aims include comparisons of changes in knowledge, perceived competence and attitudes around suicide.

Findings from previous studies have demonstrated a significant positive effect of gatekeeper training on suicide prevention attitudes, skills and knowledge. As well, general studies in medical education reveal that students who have been able to practice, observe, and receive feedback in small groups showed an improvement in skills and confidence over those who were given didactic teaching only. Therefore, the investigators anticipate that the ASIST training program will significantly improve medical students' knowledge about suicide intervention, and will increase their recognition and response to suicide risk compared to education as usual. The investigators also expect that ASIST training will help them to understand the impact of attitudes on suicide prevention, and will increase their perceived competence and ability to recognize and treat a suicidal individual compare over training as usual. It is hypothesized that medical students trained in ASIST will differ significantly in their ability to correctly recognize and intervene with suicidal individuals based on their use of a standardized suicide intervention model and objective assessment using standardized patients.

Enrollment: 112 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• all medical students at University of Manitoba

Exclusion criteria

• those who choose not to participate
• those who have already taken ASIST training or related SafeTALK training

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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112 participants in 2 patient groups

ASIST intervention

Experimental group

Description:

The gatekeeper training intervention group received the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) 10.0 in addition to TAU. ASIST is a two-day (fourteen hour), intensive, interactive and practice-dominated course aimed at enabling people to recognize risk and learn how to intervene immediately to prevent suicide. The intervention was offered to students on a weekend and was conducted by three senior ASIST trainers and one junior trainer, with two trainers assigned to each training group.

Treatment:

Other: ASIST

Control group: training as usual

No Intervention group

Description:

Training as usual consisted of didactic teaching and a tutorial with case-based examples around suicide risk factors in their first year of medical school. Third- and fourth-year students may also have the opportunity to practice their skills with real patients during their clerkship rotations or in the emergency department.