Increasing Reporting of Intimidation of Medical Students With Simulation

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.