This scenario is the final practice activity in a course training physicians to screen and counsel patients with alcohol dependency. The process for counseling in this setting is called a “brief intervention.” The client needed a way to let learners practice interacting with patients while following the multi-step intervention process. Rather than simple knowledge check questions, they decided on a branching scenario to create a more realistic practice situation. When learners make ineffective communication choices, the patient resists changing his behavior, just like in real life. You can try this scenario yourself. Note that you may fail to convince the patient even if you try several times; the learners had already completed 45 minutes of training in these skills before completing this practice.
This complex scenario was built in Captivate and includes 15 separate endings and multiple crossed paths. To reflect realistic decisions, the choices are not black and white. Some choices are good (shown in green), some choices are OK (shown in orange), and some choices are poor (shown in red). In many cases, learners can recover from a single mistake, but multiple consecutive mistakes result in an unmotivated patient and an opportunity to restart the scenario.
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