Second Year Medical Students' Perceptions of Self‐directed versus Cued Learning of Pharmacotherapeutics in a High Fidelity Medical Simulation (HFMS)

Evidence suggests that teaching pharmacology in second year high HFMS promotes learning, but no data exists on ideal methods to teach pharmacology in HFMS. The aim of this study was to compare medical students' perceptions of two methods, student‐directed non‐cued vs. cued drug selection for teaching pharmacology during a pulmonary insufficiency and shock physiology HFMS using SimMan 3G®. We employed a cross‐over design where 50% of the students, working in groups of 3, were asked to select treatment choices based on recall during a shock HFMS but were cued to drug choices during a pulmonary insufficiency HFMS. The other half completed the task in the opposite order. All groups participated in a multidisciplinary debrief immediately after the HFMS. Following HFMS, students completed a voluntary survey assessing perceptions. Results are reported as mean rating on a 1‐5 Likehart scale where 5=strongly agree. Forty‐three (43%) percent of learners preferred the cued method, 33% preferred the non‐cued method, and 25% reported no preference. Students using the non‐cued method for the shock HFMS rated promotion of critical thinking higher in comparison with cued learning (4.8 vs 4.5, respectively), although the difference was not significant (p=0.08). Students using either method equally perceived that learning pharmacology in HFMS was clinically relevant (4.8), improved autonomic pharmacology understanding (4.5), provided clerkship preparation (4.7), and that feedback in the debriefing enhanced learning (4.75). In conclusion, learners in these simulations perceived that both non‐cued and cued teaching methods enhanced their learning.