ATSU-KCOM promoting more mental health training, interprofessional collaboration
Posted: June 27, 2023
Students and faculty at A.T. Still University-Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine (ATSU-KCOM) are working to address the nation’s growing mental health crisis by increasing mental health training and taking a more interdisciplinary approach to mental health care.
Between 2011 and 2020, the number of mental health-related emergency department visits among youth and young adults rose by 8% in the U.S., based on research from the Journal of the American Medical Association. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, mental health disorders were the seventh most common primary diagnosis in emergency departments in 2019.
To help prepare the next generation of healthcare leaders to address this trend, ATSU-KCOM is promoting more mental health-based standardized patient encounters and is partnering with several local agencies in order to encourage interprofessionalism.
“We can emphasize to our students that they are not alone, they have a team around them,” explained Lisa Archer, RN, BSN, director of simulation and performance assessment at ATSU-KCOM.
Through grant funding from the Northeast Missouri Area Health Education Center (NEMO AHEC) and the Missouri State Board of Nursing, Archer, along with Sarah Thomas, EdD, MSW, LCSW, director, behavioral health & wellness, and Sarah Berke, PhD, counselor, behavioral health & wellness, have developed new standardized patient encounter training for students with an emphasis on mental health.
In April, first-year students had an opportunity to partner with Truman State University senior nursing students for a mental health standardized patient encounter at ATSU’s Drabing Human Patient Simulation Center. Each case was created by Dr. Thomas and Dr. Berke.
Some of the cases featured patients suffering from panic attacks, depression with suicidal ideation, substance abuse, and more. A nursing student would provide the initial patient assessment, which would be handed off to an ATSU-KCOM student to develop a plan of care.
“It was so rewarding to see them work together. Some of the med students said things like, ‘I didn’t realize that I was going to have so much help and support and care for the patient alongside me.’ Because as they’re going through med school, they feel like they’re kind of lone rangers, and taking care of the patients alone. We really need to introduce more interprofessional education experiences,” Archer said.
In May, ATSU-KCOM continued with mental health-focused standardized patient training, as first- and second-year students in ATSU’s Emergency Medicine Club partnered with the Adair County Ambulance District (ACAD), Mark Twain Behavioral Health (MTBH), and Preferred Family Healthcare.
In these standardized patient encounters, students worked alongside paramedics and mental health workers in an emergency department setting.
“I want my med students to understand that when you get into the ER, or in an acute care setting, those patients that they take care of have a beginning somewhere. They didn’t just appear in their ER and that was the beginning, a lot of times we’ve got healthcare workers in the field that are stabilizing these patients,” Archer said.
Through this training, students are prepared to enter residency with a deeper knowledge of mental health cases, and can provide more compassionate, whole person care.
“I love to see the students react to those kinds of things and other disciplines. They were blown away by the expertise of paramedics,” Archer said, adding, “The three paramedics that we had that particular day probably have a combined over 100 years of experience.”
