The Effects of Stress on the Clinical Performance of Residents in Simulated Trauma Scenarios

University of Toronto

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Trauma; Stress

Treatments: Behavioral: stress

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00485927

07-10

Details and patient eligibility

About

Medical practice & training are inherently stressful situations. However, the effects of stress on educational & clinical performance are not well defined. The purpose of the current study is to examine the effects of stress on performance of residents in simulated trauma scenarios. The hypothesis is: 1) acutely stressful scenarios will be appraised as threat by residents and result in elevations of heart rate and salivary cortisol; 2) increased subjective & physiological stress will result in impairments in performance; and 3) greater stress responses will result in greater clinical impairments.

Enrollment: 20 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 21 to 50 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• University of Toronto General Surgery & Emergency medicine residents

Exclusion criteria

• No ATLS training
• Residents from other programs

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: Double Blind