IntroductionIn the absence of guidelines clinicians must make medical decisions using reliable evidence. This requires knowledge of research concepts and critical appraisal skills. Yet, it is recognized that training in this area is often lacking and widely varied. This paper’s aim is to survey medical students and clinicians to identify attitudes towards research education and overall confidence. MethodsA national cross-sectional study using a ten-point survey was distributed from February-March 2021. Eligible respondents were United Kingdom senior medical students in final or penultimate years and doctors pre-specialty training. Respondents were categorized into three groups: medical students, clinicians, and clinical academics.Results 139 eligible respondents completed our survey of which 58 were senior medical students across 9 medical schools. All medical students were in penultimate or final years of their medical courses. Also 81 doctors responded, 20% (n=16) of whom were clinical academics. Only 48% of medical students, 60% of clinicians and 65% of clinical academics said they’d received formal educational teaching during medical school as part of the curriculum. This increased to 72% for students who had intercalated or studied degrees previously. Clinical academics consistently reported having received the most training. Clinical academics also had the most confidence in understanding research concepts; study types, PICOS, P-value, null hypothesis, types of error, and types of bias. Medical students who intercalated were more confident in critical appraisal concepts with the majority rating themselves as ‘somewhat confident’ in 5 of the 6 research concepts compared to students who did not intercalate who rated themselves as ‘somewhat confident’ in 3 of the 6 concepts.Discussion The results show there is a general lack of teaching and confidence in evidence-based methods. Medical schools must address this to develop doctors who can make well-informed clinical decisions. Further action is required to standardize a research curriculum.
Introduction Early exposure of medical students to surgical skills has been associated with an increased interest in pursuing a career in surgery. This study aimed to investigate the impact of student background on basic laparoscopic skills acquisition and perceived stress to workload during simulation. Method Students were recruited to a course modelled on the European Basic Laparoscopic Urological Skills (E-BLUS) programme. Students filled out a pre-course demographic survey, and a post-course survey that evaluated perceived stress to workload (SURG-TLX). Pre- and post-course confidence in laparoscopic skills, performance in the course, as well as SURG-TLX parameters were statistically compared for all demographic factors. Result Twenty-three participants completed the course, fifteen (65%) of which were female. Ten students were junior (first and second year), and thirteen were senior (third year and above). Hobbies were grouped into either requiring hand-eye coordination (n=9), manual dexterity (n=9), or no relevance to surgery (n=5). No significant differences were found in demographic factors for course performance or pre- and post-course confidence. No significant differences were found between male and female students, and between different hobby groups, in all SURG-TLX parameters. Senior students reported a significantly higher Physical Demand of the SURG-TLX compared to juniors (p=0.042). No differences were found in other parameters. Conclusion Our study showed no correlation between student background (notably sex and stage of medical school) and basic laparoscopic skills acquisition or stress during simulation. We therefore suggest that medical students are provided with more exposure to acquire basic laparoscopic skills regardless of their background. Take-home message Medical student background is not a discriminator in surgical simulation performance and stress. All medical students, regardless of their sex or stage of medical school, should be given the opportunity to practice laparoscopic skills.
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