Medical Emergency Training For Psychiatric Healthcare Staff

Abstract

Background: Physical comorbidities are highly prevalent among the mental health population. The associated risk between the two are said to be two- to fourfold. Inadequate emergency response training among mental health personnel has been identified as a common issue during medical emergencies, with personnel reporting feeling unprepared and unskilled. The use of clinical simulations has demonstrated improvements in clinical skills, communication, and confidence for healthcare personnel.

Local Problem: The behavioral health ward of a suburban area hospital is planning to move to a stand-alone facility. When surveyed, its personnel felt the least confident with the medical management of acute strokes. The goals of this project were to have at least 85% of the inpatient behavioral health staff achieve the pre-determined minimal level of clinical competency for the management of acute stroke and 100% of the staff demonstrate improved confidence and critical thinking skills/knowledge in the management of acute stroke.

Interventions: The purpose of this project was to develop and implement a simulation and additional resources for inpatient psychiatric staff, resulting in demonstrated clinical proficiency, as well as increased knowledge and competence in recognizing and responding to the signs and symptoms of an acute stroke. A sample of 20 personnel for Part 1 and 10 personnel for Part 2 participated in an educational training and evaluation of acute stroke. The training was divided into two phases: the delivery of didactic education and a series of clinical simulations.

Results: Overall, participants felt more confident managing acute strokes post-simulation compared to pre-simulation. While there were no noticeable changes in clinical knowledge between the two phases, participants were able to demonstrate the pre-determined level of clinical proficiency during the simulation.

Conclusions: This quality improvement project achieved the goals of demonstrated clinical proficiency and increased competence when recognizing and responding to the signs and symptoms of acute stroke for behavioral health personnel with the implementation of an educational resource and clinical simulation. While the goal of increased knowledge was not achieved, the usefulness of training behavioral health personnel to manage medical emergencies was validated. Additional educational resources and future research directed toward this population should be a priority for healthcare institutions nationwide.