Medical education worldwide is undergoing a pedagogical renovation movement; medical simulation is one of the revolutionary educational tools whose aim is to improve the medical knowledge, technical and non-technical skills of health professionals, while ensuring patient safety. Many studies have dealt with the contribution of simulation in cardiology, however no studies have been done on the management of cardiovascular emergencies in pregnant women by simulation. The purpose of our work is to evaluate a simulation-based educational training program on cardiovascular emergencies in pregnant women by comparing it to a “traditional” training program and to assess the students’ satisfaction with this teaching method.

We conducted anexperimental, comparative, randomized and multicentric studyon 60 medical students (≥6th year), the study started with a pre-test, followed by a theoretical training session on cardiovascular emergencies in pregnant women, a randomization of students into two groups, according to whether they had benefited or not from simulation sessions before taking a post-test.

We selected 57 students: 29 in group 1 (SIM+) and 28 in group 2 (SIM−), both groups were comparable regarding their level of medical studies, hospital training in cardiology or gynecology and prior participation at simulation sessions. The pre-test results were comparable for both training groups. The progression of the marks between the pre-test and the post-test was significant P<0.001 for both training groups, However a better progression of the marks in group 1 compared to group 2 has been observed P=0.001.

This preliminary study has demonstrated the considerable interest of medical simulation as an innovative teaching tool in training on cardiovascular emergencies in pregnant women and its added value compared to “traditional” training programs.