AB111. SOH21AS208. Assessing the effect of simulation training on medical students’ competence
General Session II

AB111. SOH21AS208. Assessing the effect of simulation training on medical students’ competence

Niall McInerney1, Faraz Khan1, Laoise Coady2, Jeffrey Daili1, Maurice Stokes1,3, Helen Heneghan2,3, Ronan Cahill1,3

1UCD Centre for Precision Surgery, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland; 2Department of Surgery, St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland; 3University College Dublin, School of Medicine, Dublin, Ireland

Background: coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has impacted all non-emergent hospital activities, including on-site medical student education. In response, we implemented an on-site simulation programme to supplement our existing curriculum to ensure that our students’ clinical learning experience is optimised.

Methods: Over the course of a 12-week period, all students enrolled in the surgery module received biweekly surgical tutor-led simulated patient sessions using a remote observation audio-visual system (SMOTSTM) in the decommissioned original operating theatres of the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital respecting hospital protocols. To assess usefulness, independent clinical teams scored student clinical competence [using twelve components of the Surgical Ward Assessment Tool (SWAT)] in representative groups completing surgical rotations who had simulation training versus those completing same duration medicine rotations without. Differences between groups were evaluated using Mann-Whitney U testing.

Results: A total of 220 students underwent simulation training this semester over 96 hours of scheduled, direct teaching. For the study, 66 students (38 females, 29 graduate entry) were formally assessed by non-academic clinical staff from ten specialties at two clinical sites. Students who received simulation training (n=35) were significantly better at history taking (P=0.004) and appropriate laboratory (P=0.001) and radiological investigation (P=0.01) ordering. There was no significant difference between the groups otherwise including clinical examination, assessing the patient’s drug chart assessment and differential diagnosis formulation.

Conclusions: This study shows the rapid implementation of a simulation programme for undergraduate medical students to adapt to the pandemic restrictions. In doing this, we have reduced the burden on our clinical site whilst also improving our students’ competence.

Keywords: Simulation-based medical education; undergraduate surgical education; competence assessment

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

doi: 10.21037/map-21-ab111
Cite this abstract as: McInerney N, Khan F, Coady L, Daili J, Stokes M, Heneghan H, Cahill R. SOH21AS208. Assessing the effect of simulation training on medical students’ competence. Mesentery Peritoneum 2021;5:AB111.

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