BACKGROUND: Gatekeeper training is a widely endorsed strategy for suicide prevention education, yet its effectiveness in real-world healthcare settings remains underexplored. Within the Zero Suicide framework, training the healthcare workforce to recognize and respond to suicide risk is a key implementation component. OBJECTIVE: This evaluation examined whether a suicide prevention gatekeeper training implemented at an academic medical center was associated with differences in self-perceived suicide prevention competencies among healthcare employees. METHODS: Pre- and post-training questionnaires were administered to employees at University of Utah Health who participated in gatekeeper training between 2023 and mid-2025. A total of 1,658 completed questionnaires were analyzed, assessing self-reported competencies in suicide risk identification, referral knowledge, supportive listening, and comfort initiating conversations about suicide. RESULTS: Results demonstrated statistically significant differences across all self-reported domains, with medium-to-large effect sizes for referral knowledge and warning sign recognition. Differences were consistent across years and among both patient-facing and non-patient-facing staff. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest higher self-perceived suicide prevention competencies in post-training responses within a large real-world healthcare system setting. These results support the role of workforce training as a core component of the Zero Suicide framework. Future research should incorporate longitudinal designs and objective behavioral measures to assess sustained impact and inform best practices.
Jasperson et al. (Sun,) studied this question.