Medical students' learning processes the first time they role-play in psychiatry: A grounded theory study.

BACKGROUND: Recent changes in psychiatric care and teaching that limit patient contact for medical students can be overcome in part by simulation-based education. Understanding the learning processes of medical students involved in psychiatric simulation-based programmes could usefully inform efforts to improve this teaching. This study explored the learning processes of medical students the first time they role-play in psychiatry. METHODS: We used constructivist grounded theory to analyse semi-structured interviews of 13 purposively sampled medical students and the six psychiatrists who trained them. To improve the triangulation process, the results of this analysis were compared with those of the analyses of the role-play video and the debriefing audio-tapes. RESULTS: Five organising themes emerged: improving the students' immediate perception of patients with mental disorders; cultivating clinical reasoning; managing affect; enhancing skills and attitudes and fostering involvement in learning psychiatry. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that psychiatric role-playing can improve students' progressive understanding of psychiatry through the development of intuition and by allaying affects. Emotional elaboration and student involvement appear to be key features.

French guidelines for the outpatient management of Ebola virus disease: Applicability by family physicians.

BACKGROUND: During the last alarming Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak, the French Ministry of Health developed guidelines for the outpatient management of EVD. We aimed to assess family physicians' (FP) knowledge of EVD, to assess their working conditions, and to collect their opinion about the applicability of these guidelines in France. METHODS: Cross-sectional quantitative study (telephone or email) performed (November 2014-June 2015) during the EVD outbreak. Relevant results were further analyzed with a qualitative study (interviews) based on grounded theory (June-September 2016), after the end of the EVD outbreak. RESULTS: Thirty-three FPs out of 100contacted answered our survey (response rate: 33%). We interviewed five FPs. Their knowledge of EVD was good. Information sent by post, especially from the national medical association, was considered the best means of information and was preferred to emails. Compliance with guidelines was based on their ease of understanding and application (common sense). The main difficulty in applying these guidelines was the unusual recommended equipment that seemed unnecessary as the management of these patients was based on their interview (anamnesis) and isolation without examination. EVD had little impact on the FPs' practice, they only trained their secretaries to screen for suspected EVD patients and refer them to the mobile emergency unit. CONCLUSION: FPs had good knowledge of EVD and guidelines. This seemed important to prevent the outbreak in France as they were ready to cope with such a situation, thanks to guidelines they could easily adjust to their practice.