Griev_Ing: death notification skills and applications for fourth-year medical students.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Our study examined whether GRIEV_ING improved death notification skills of medical students, whether pretesting with simulated survivors primed learners and improved results of the intervention, and whether feedback on the simulated encounter improved student performance.

METHODS

GRIEV_ING training was given to 138 fourth-year medical students divided into three groups: exposure to simulated survivor (SS) with written feedback, exposure to SS but no feedback, and no exposure to SS before the training. Students were tested on self-confidence before and after the intervention and were rated by SSs on interpersonal communication and death notification skills. ANCOVA was performed, with gender and race covariates.

RESULTS

All groups improved on death notification competence and confidence at about the same rate. Competence significantly (p =.037) improved for the feedback group. Interpersonal communication scores declined for all groups.

CONCLUSIONS

GRIEV_ING provides an effective model medical educators can use to train medical students to provide competent death notifications. Senior medical students are primed to learn death notification and do not require a preexposure.