Teaching procedural skills to medical students: one institution's experience with an emergency procedures course.

Full Abstract

STUDY

OBJECTIVE:
We examine the effect of a preclinical emergency procedures course on students' clinical procedural skills and medical knowledge.

METHODS:
This is a retrospective review of evaluation forms for a cohort of 86 students graduating from medical school at an academic center. A cross section of students (n=57) taking a clinical emergency medicine rotation over a 4-year period was also studied. Numeric scores (1 to 9 on a Likert scale) in procedural skills and medical knowledge categories were extracted from evaluations for internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and emergency medicine rotations. Scores of students who had taken an elective course, Essential Procedures in Emergency Medicine (EPEM), were compared with scores of students who did not take this course. US Medical Licensing Examination Step I scores for both groups were also compared.

RESULTS:
Students who took EPEM scored significantly higher in the procedural skills category during the emergency medicine rotation (P =.04) and during both months of the internal medicine rotation (P =.02; P =.02). Students scored on average higher in the surgery and obstetrics and gynecology rotations, but these differences were not statistically significant. Students who took EPEM scored significantly higher in the medical knowledge category for emergency medicine (P =.01; P =.002), both months of internal medicine (P =.03; P =.006), and 1 of 2 months of surgery (P =.01) rotations. Students in obstetrics and gynecology rotations scored higher, although not significantly. US Medical Licensing Examination Step I scores were not different between students taking or not taking EPEM.

CONCLUSION:
Students taking EPEM achieved higher procedural skill and medical knowledge scores in clinical rotations. Emergency medicine is a specialty well suited to study procedures teaching and performance.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: van der Vlugt, Theresa M (TM); Harter, Phillip M (PM);

Affiliation: Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94304, USA. Tvander(-atsign-)stanford.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Evaluation Studies; Journal Article

Journal: Annals of emergency medicine (Ann Emerg Med), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Jul; vol 40 (issue 1) : pp 41-9

Dates: Created 2002/06/26; Completed 2002/07/31; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12085072, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

California
Clinical Competence
Cross-Sectional Studies
Curriculum
Education, Medical, Undergraduate - methods

Education, Medical, Undergraduate - methods
Emergency Medicine - education
Humans
Retrospective Studies
Teaching - methods

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.