Purpose
Clinical reasoning and collaboration with other healthcare professionals are important skills in handling acute intoxication cases due to their complexity. Therefore, we developed an innovative simulation-based acute intoxication training for a combined group of second and third-year Master of Pharmacy and Medicine students at Leiden University Medical Center. In this simulation training, they collaborate on clinical reasoning and decision-making.

Methods
The simulation training offers two different toxicology scenarios with human simulation patients. In these scenarios, a professional paramedic, an emergency room (ER) physician, a lab analyst, and several security guards are involved. Each scenario consists of 1) a short video (approx. 6 min) portraying a realistic view of the intoxication prior to the patient’s arrival at the ER and 2) the real-time scenario at a simulated ER setting. The students are guided by the ER physician and two (hospital) pharmacists as teachers, but the final outcome of the scenario session is solely determined by the shared decision-making of the students.

Results
Participants highly rate the simulation training because 1) they can practice their clinical reasoning in a safe learning environment by giving adequate advice based on patient characteristics, 2) they learn how to deal with time pressure while making decisions and 3) they learn about the urgency of communication with other healthcare professionals. Other strong points according to the students are the interaction between participants and teachers, the realistic setting, the step-by-step discussion of the scenarios, and getting a better insight into the work of healthcare professionals involved in intoxication cases.

Conclusion
Our innovative simulation training enables Master of Pharmacy and Medicine students to apply their toxicology knowledge, while experiencing the consequences of their pharmacological interventions and learning how to collaborate in the acute care at the ER in a safe, authentic, and interprofessional learning environment.