Increasing Reporting of Intimidation of Medical Students With Simulation

Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Intimidation

Treatments: Behavioral: Simulation; Behavioral: Control group; Behavioral: Video

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03184142

16.422

Details and patient eligibility

About

Intimidation of medical students by health care professionals is a well-documented phenomenon. Raising awareness of what constitutes intimidation is a preferred method for preventing it through increased reporting. Simulation is a novel method of raising awareness of intimidation.

This is a randomised controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of simulation (involving actors), an educational video and no intervention, as adjuncts to group discussion, on students' ability to identify and report intimidation. Medical students from the University of Montreal in Montreal, Canada, will be recruited at the beginning of surgical clerkship. They will complete a standardized and validated pre-intervention questionnaire on their experience with intimidation consisting of multiple choice questions and short answers. They will be randomised to one of the three interventions lasting 70 minutes that will be followed by a 20-minute standardized discussion on intimidation with all students participating together. At the end of their surgical rotation, they will complete a similar post-intervention questionnaire with additional questions pertaining to the reporting of intimidation.

Differences in intimidation reporting after the intervention as well as a before and after comparison of the "Negative Acts Questionnaire" score will be studied.

Enrollment: 129 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Medical students at the University of Montreal at the beginning of their surgical clerkship rotation.

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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129 participants in 3 patient groups, including a placebo group

Simulation

Experimental group

Description:

During a suturing class at the simulation center, the students enter a classroom. Although the students are not aware of this, among them is an actor playing the role of a student. One of the two professors is also an actor. As the activity progresses, the professor targets the student played by an actor. The intimidation intensifies until the end. At the end of the activity, there is a debriefing explaining to the students that the bullying professor and the victim were actors.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Simulation

Video

Experimental group

Description:

During a suturing class at the simulation center, after 55 minutes of suturing, the students will be exposed to a 15-minute video on workplace and hospital intimidation and how to manage it.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Video

Control

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

During a suturing class at the simulation center, the students suture for the entire 70-minute duration of the activity. They are not exposed to intimidation (control group).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Control group