Impact of a simulation-based training on the experience of the beginning of residency

We aimed to evaluate the impact of an immersive simulation session on the experience of the beginning of residency. The interventional group consisted of newly recruited residents in 2019, who participated in the workshop presenting four emergency scenarios frequently encountered during night shifts; the control group comprised residents who had begun their internship in 2018, without having participated in the simulation workshop. The level of psychological stress and self-confidence were self-estimated in the simulation group before and immediately after the workshop. During the second semester of residency, stress, self-efficacy and anxiety were evaluated in both groups with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), General Self-efficacy Scale (GSES), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale. In the second semester 2020, the PSS, GSES and GAD-7 were 20.71±8.15 and 22.44±5.68 (P=0.40); 26.88±6.30 and 27.11±3.95 (P=0.87); 6.94±5.25 and 8.89±4.78 (P=0.22) for the simulation (n=17, 89.5% of participation) and control (n=9, 75%) groups, respectively. In the simulation group, the level of self-confidence had significantly improved from 1.82±0.95 before the session to 2.29±1.16 after the session (P=0.05). Interestingly, this improvement in self-confidence was significantly correlated with GAD-7 (P=0.014) and PSS (P=0.05), and tended to be correlated with GSES (P=0.09). Our study showed a significant improvement in self-confidence between before and after the simulation session. Residents who experienced an improvement in self-confidence saw their stress and anxiety levels decrease during the second semester reevaluation, in favor of a prolonged benefit from the session. Nous avons cherché à évaluer le bénéfice d’une séance de simulation immersive sur le vécu d’internat en médecine interne. Le groupe interventionnel était composé d’internes, nouvellement recrutés en 2019, qui ont participé à l’atelier présentant quatre scénarios d’urgence fréquemment rencontrés lors des gardes de nuit ; le groupe témoin était composé de résidents ayant commencé leur internat en 2018, sans avoir participé à l’atelier de simulation. Le niveau de stress et de confiance en soi a été autoévalué dans le groupe simulation avant et après la session. Lors du second semestre d’internat, le stress, l’autoefficacité et l’anxiété ont été évalués dans les deux groupes à l’aide de la Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), de la General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) et de l’échelle Generalized Anxiety Dis