Innovative and Timely Approaches to Suicide Prevention in Medical Education

Suicide Prevention Takes a Nation: Collaborative Approaches to Universalize Suicide Prevention

Suicide is a complex public health issue impacting many children and adolescents-and their families-each year, and it requires a complex public health solution. Local, state, and national collaboratives that leverage evidence-based strategies, foster community engagement, and prioritize equity are necessary to holistically address this issue. Here, the authors discuss the necessary steps for fostering inclusive community partnerships and outline the rationale for partnering with schools, youth groups, faith organizations, parent-teacher organizations, clinical settings, and professional organizations, as well as collaborating with the juvenile justice and child welfare systems and working together to foster suicide prevention policy.

Examination of medical student and physician attitudes towards suicide reveals need for required training

The attitudes of healthcare providers towards suicidal patients are known to influence their motivation to treat patients during a suicidal crisis. Patients who attempted suicide are more likely to have recently visited a primary care provider who is not necessarily sufficiently trained in managing a suicidal patient rather than a mental health provider who is trained to do so. For those reasons, documenting medical students and physicians' attitudes towards suicide can help in the development of effective intervention training to prepare them to manage these types of patients. In this mini review, attitudes towards suicidal patients, the effectiveness of training on changing their attitudes are discussed. In summary, primary care providers are recognized as a top area where improvements can prevent suicides; providing proper suicide prevention training can effectively improve attitudes and quality of care for suicidal patients.

Effectiveness of online advanced C.A.R.E suicide prevention gatekeeper training program among healthcare lecturers and workers in national university of Malaysia: A pilot study

BACKGROUND

Suicide is a major cause of death among adolescents and young adults, especially students. This is particularly true for healthcare students with a higher risk and more access to lethal means. Thus, it is vital for healthcare educators who have regular contact with these healthcare students to be trained as gatekeepers in preventing suicide. Evidence of the effectiveness of such gatekeeper training, mainly using an online module, is lacking predominantly in Malaysia. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of an online gatekeeper suicide prevention training program that is conducted for healthcare lecturers.

METHODS

A single-arm interventional pre-and post-pilot study was conducted on a sample of healthcare lecturers and workers who are involved in supervising healthcare students. A purposive sampling technique was used to recruit 50 healthcare educators in Malaysia. The program was conducted by trained facilitators and 31 participants completed a locally validated self-rated questionnaire to measure their self-efficacy and declarative knowledge in preventing suicide; immediately before and after the intervention.

RESULTS

Significant improvement was seen in the overall outcome following the intervention, mostly in the self-efficacy domain. No significant improvement was seen in the domain of declarative knowledge possibly due to ceiling effects; an already high baseline knowledge about suicide among healthcare workers. This is an exception in a single item that assesses a common misperception in assessing suicide risk where significant improvement was seen following the program.

CONCLUSION

The online Advanced C.A.R.E. Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training Program is promising in the short-term overall improvement in suicide prevention, primarily in self-efficacy.

Improving Medical Student Attitudes Toward Suicide Prevention Through a Patient Safety Planning Clerkship Initiative

OBJECTIVE

This project aimed to understand medical students' attitudes toward suicide prevention and their experiences in an innovative clerkship training program that engaged students in patient safety planning.

METHODS

Medical students were invited to complete the Attitudes to Suicide Prevention (ASP) scale to explore student perceptions of suicide prevention and risk assessment. Seventy-five psychiatry clerkship students also completed a new safety planning training program with at-risk patients on psychiatry inpatient units. Each student observed a patient safety plan being completed, discussed this process with the resident or attending, completed a safety plan with another patient, and then debriefed with the observing physician. Participants completed the ASP before and after the rotation.

RESULTS

The cross-sectional data (n=490) showed that student perceptions of suicide prevention were generally positive (M=27.8, SD=6.1) with variation among classes, but many students did not fully recognize the potential effectiveness of suicide risk reduction strategies. After the clerkship intervention, students were significantly more likely to report that working with suicidal patients was rewarding (p=0.035) and less likely to report discomfort assessing patients for suicide risk (p=0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Medical educators can reinforce the process and efficacy of suicide interventions by modeling the described initiative. Psychiatry clerkship training that intentionally engages students in safety planning with patients is generalizable, and these skills could be extended to the student burnout crisis. Longitudinal studies will help determine how individual perceptions change through medical school and whether students apply safety planning skills in psychiatry and other specialties to care for suicidal patients.