Teaching of 2nd year medical school autonomic pharmacology in simulated shock experiences

Abstract

To develop an innovative method for teaching autonomic pharmacology, we incorporated sympathomimetic treatments into simulated shock sessions. Effective teaching of autonomic pharmacology is essential to provide the background and critical thinking skills necessary to understand cardiovascular concepts. Since students previously struggled with autonomic pharmacology didactics, innovative teaching methods that stress application and clinical relevance were developed to improve learning. Thus, pharmacology was incorporated into both cardiogenic and septic shock simulations developed with SimMan manikins during the 2nd year cardiovascular module. Sympathomimetic choices in the simulations were: epinephrine, dobutamine, phenylephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine, and albuterol. Non‐sympathomimetic choices were also included. Multi‐disciplinary debriefings performed immediately after the simulations focused on integrated clinical and pharmacology teaching. Students had positive perceptions of the simulations, describing them as an “awesome” and “unforgettable” way to learn pharmacology. Preliminary formative and summative assessment data suggested an improvement in autonomic pharmacology performance. Thus, sympathomimetic pharmacology was effectively and innovatively taught in two simulations with manikins suffering from septic and cardiogenic shock, respectively.