Simulation-Based Stress Inoculation Training

Previous research has shown that health professionals can experience stress responses during high acuity events such as trauma resuscitations. These stress responses can lead to impaired clinical performance. The goal of this proposed project is to adapt Stress Inoculation Training (SIT) to the healthcare setting. Stress Inoculation Training is a cognitive-behavioural approach to stress management that has proven effective in reducing stress and improving performance in domains outside of healthcare. Thirty-two emergency medicine residents will be randomly divided into two groups. The SIT group will receive the simulation-based stress inoculation training. We will measure the effectiveness of the training by looking at reduction of stress levels and improvements in clinical performance in a pre-intervention and a post-intervention simulated trauma scenario. The control group will be exposed to the same simulation scenarios and pre/post intervention scenarios as the SIT group, but will not receive the stress inoculation training.