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Stress and Clinical Reasoning in Medical Students

NCT01061255 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 62

Last updated 2021-09-17

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Solving a problem in ambulatory setting may contain peripheral stress due to socio-evaluative stressors (patient's expectations about explanations) and task contingent stress due to time pressure, the necessity to take into account patient's mood, to deal with uncertainty of their own data collection and with complex clinical situations. In France, excepted for family medicine, undergraduate medical students and residents are currently not trained to perform consultations and are never exposed to ambulatory patients during training. The investigators postulate that this lack of practice may generate a significant state of stress during the first consultations and consequently modify or even impair clinical reasoning.

The primary objective of this study is to compare subjective and physiological levels of acute stress in ambulatory versus hospitalization setting in medical students confronted to a real patient with a diagnostic problem.

Measures: The French version of the Anxiety Spielberger test is administered just before and after each problem solving session.

Cortisol salivary samples are taken before and after each problem solving session. Salivary cortisol levels have been shown to be correlated to stressful situations and some personality traits but with some difference according to gender.

Cognitive appraisal (threat/challenge) is assessed before and after the tasks by the ratio of primary appraisal to secondary appraisal according to Tomaka et al.

Conditions

  • Stress

Interventions

OTHER

Evaluation of the stress

Medical Students having to solve a medical problem in ambulatory setting (studied group) vs. in hospitalisation setting (control group). Measures: The French version of the Anxiety Spielberger test is administered just before and after each problem solving session. Cortisol salivary samples are taken before and after each problem solving session. Salivary cortisol levels have been shown to be correlated to stressful situations and some personality traits but with some difference according to gender.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Nantes University Hospital

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Pierre POTTIER, Dr · Nantes University Hospital

Study Design

Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Model
CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2009-11-09
Primary Completion
2010-04-12
Completion
2010-04-12

Countries

  • France

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01061255 on ClinicalTrials.gov