Comparison of simulated patient and didactic methods of teaching HIV risk assessment to medical residents

Introduction: Physicians need to be well trained in HIV risk assessment interview skills. Little has been written in the literature concerning training methods for this specialized interview. Methods: One model to teach the HIV risk assessment interview has been developed and has been used to teach third-year medical students. We compared this interactive model, which uses simulated patients to teach HIV Risk Assessment, to a didactic one. Twelve medical residents were taken through either the interactive session or the didactic session. Pre-post changes from questionnaires were calculated to determine any differences in sessions. Also, Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) were used to grade all residents 2 weeks after their sessions. Results: All pre-post changes were calculated and no statistically significant differences were seen (P > 0.50). OSCE interpersonal skills scores and content scores were calculated. The interactive group had statistically significantly higher scores (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The data supports the conclusion that an interactive method is more effective to use to train HIV risk assessment interview skills to medical residents when compared to the didactic method.