Tom Kramer enters your
office, requesting a refill for oxycodone prescribed to him by a former
physician to help manage his chronic back pain resulting from a car accident
three years ago. It is your job to assess Tom's risk level for abusing opioids
and provide him with care to manage his pain. You can choose to talk with him
during the first appointment to practice asking appropriate screening questions
and requesting a urine sample for a drug screening. You can also practice
prescribing medication during a second visit after you identify that he is at
low-risk for abusing opioids; the goal is to create an agreement with Tom to
ensure that he will continue using the medication as prescribed. If you want to
practice working with a high-risk patient who still needs relief for his chronic
pain, you can talk to Tom about managing his withdrawal symptoms and alternative
pain management options. But be careful, Tom can be very persuasive and may
cause you to change your mind against your better judgment.
Email us about purchasing this training system for yourself or your organization.
Users of the
Prescription Drug Screening and Follow-Up
Care training system are doctors or students who will likely encounter a
scenario similar to Tom's in the course of their careers. Through the training program
they will learn about and gain practice to better understand the
different prescription pain medications, how to work with patients to create
agreements for safe use and handling of opioid medications, how to identify
high-risk behaviors, resources available to healthcare workers by state, and how
to manage chronic pain without opioid medicines when high-risk behaviors are
exhibited. The training system includes five hours of interactive e-learning and three
simulated appointments.
During each simulated appointment with Tom, users have the opportunity to discuss his pain levels, improvement goals, and treatment options. Tom’s behavior will change each time an appointment begins. For example, during the first visit, Tom may be at high-risk for abusing his medication, low- or moderate-risk in others, and sometimes he may be trying to scam the user into prescribing more medication than is necessary.
To add to the challenge, the questions and statements the users select will change how Tom reacts to them. For example, in the second appointment with a high-risk patient, Tom
may become very angry and threaten an unsympathetic user who denies the prescription without first building rapport, but he will be willing to discuss alternative treatment options with a compassionate user who utilized opportunities to build a collaborative relationship. This variation in Tom’s behavior and mood ensures that each interaction between doctor and patient provides a unique and engaging training opportunity, even after numerous plays.
This training system aids in increasing healthcare professionals’ comfort levels with these tough conversations. Users receive real-time support and feedback from an on-screen coach and a post-conversation assessment based on how well users master the training objectives for each conversation. After playing this training system, users will be able to approach these difficult topics with a new patient.
SIMmersion developed this product with guidance from Dr. Michael Fleming and teams of experts at Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison with funding from NIDA thru a Small Business Innovative Research Phase II grant award. During Phase I, SIMmersion developed a demonstration version of the initial screening visit scenario.
Try this sample training system now for free.
SIMmersion LLC has created other addiction training systems. Learn more about Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention and Drug Abuse Screening.
SIMmersion LLC can create any custom system to fit your training needs. Contact us.
