CRISIS RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (CRM) COURSE FOR UNDERGRADUATE MEDICINE AND NURSING STUDENTS

Background Crisis Resource Management (CRM) is a key framework for optimizing team dynamics, communication, situational awareness, and non-technical skills in high-pressure healthcare environments. Although well established in postgraduate medical education, its implementation in undergraduate curricula remains limited. This study aims to describe the educational design, implementation, and outcomes of a simulation-based CRM program for final-year medical and nursing students. Activity Development (Methods) Conducted annually since the 2018–2019 academic year at Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, the mandatory program is structured around 15 core CRM principles across five domains: role clarity, communication, seeking/managing help, resource utilization, and global assessment. Sessions are facilitated by trained instructors and simulation technicians. The educational format includes pre-course materials, an introductory psychological safety and video analysis session, equipment familiarization stations, and four high-fidelity simulation scenarios (cardiac arrest, hypoglycemia with altered consciousness, acute pulmonary edema, and major trauma). Interprofessional teams (two medical and three nursing students) participate actively in scenarios followed by structured plus/delta/plus debriefings. Perceptions and satisfaction are gathered via post-activity surveys. Discussion & Practical Implications The interprofessional approach is identified as one of the program’s most valuable aspects, fostering collaborative problem-solving, shared leadership, and mutual role understanding prior to independent clinical practice. Participants report high satisfaction and express strong support for increased interprofessional training. Study limitations include the absence of a control group, reliance on self-reported perception data, and lack of long-term objective evaluation in real-world clinical settings. Conclusions High-fidelity simulation-based CRM training provides an effective, highly accepted educational framework for undergraduate medical and nursing students, promoting teamwork competencies and fostering a patient safety culture early in clinical training.