Ex situ and in situ training of admission department staff of psychological first aid for acute psychological reactions to stress in relatives of intensive care patients

Introduction . Training of admission department registrars in psychological first aid for relatives of patients with life-threatening conditions is a pressing issue in the modern healthcare system. The objective was to establish the effectiveness of the educational and methodological complex of the residency «Anesthesiology and Resuscitation» on psychological first aid for relatives of intensive care patients in developing universal competence in interacting with relatives of patients during the training of admission department registrars. Materials and methods . Two sessions were held with 8 registrars in a simulation center, and the 3 rd simulation session was held at the registrars’ workplace. Simulated relatives of patients played apathy, fear, hysteria, crying, anxiety, and aggression. The scores of the checklists according to the psychological first aid algorithm were compared at all sessions for each psychological reaction and for each session for all reactions. Results . No differences in scores were found for apathy and crying. For hysteria, aggression, and anxiety, there were more scores at the 3rd session. In case of fear, the points at the 3 rd session were higher than at the 2 nd and 1 st , at the 2nd session, they were higher than at the 1 st . There was no differences between psychological reactions at the 2 nd and 3 rd sessions. At the 1 st session, the points for apathy were higher than for other reactions, except for crying, the points for crying exceeded the points for anxiety and fear. Conclusion . The educational and methodological complex of the residency «Anesthesiology and Resuscitation» of psychological first aid for relatives of intensive care patients improves the results of simulation training in the formation of universal competence in interacting with relatives of patients. The methodology of «in situ simulation» sessions is applicable in the formation of such competence.