Family-Planning counselling simulation for medical students: An exploratory educational intervention

Abstract Introduction Family-Planning services should ideally be offered to any person who is of reproductive age, but when health personnel are not properly trained, the counselling can become suboptimal especially to patients at higher reproductive risk. The use of simulators of human patients and the use of simulation with standardised patients has shown to be useful in improving learning and communication attitudes, as well as reinforcing theoretical learning of medical students. To our knowledge, its use in producing skills in Family Planning and the counselling of contraceptive methods has not yet been sufficiently explored. Objective To evaluate a simulation-based contraceptive counselling learning strategy for medical students to improve the skills involved in counselling of Family-Planning methods. Methods Exploratory, mixed-method study consisting of three groups of medical students. Results The theoretical knowledge of the students increased by 7.24 points, while in the analysis of the performance in the simulation performed at the beginning and end of the semester, a significant increase of 14.26 points was observed. Discussion The use of a simulation centre and standardised patients in a carefully represented environment favoured a meaningful learning. It also improved personalised counselling and strengthened the communications skills of medical students.