Impact of Face-to-Face Teaching in Addition to Electronic Learning on Personal Protective Equipment Doffing Proficiency in Student Paramedics: Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Personal protective equipment doffing is a complex procedure that needs to be adequately performed to prevent health care worker contamination. During the COVID-19 pandemic, junior health care workers and students of different health care professions who had not been trained to carry out such procedures were often called upon to take care of infected patients. To limit direct contact, distance teaching interventions were used, but different trials found that their impact was rather limited. We therefore designed and carried out a randomized controlled trial assessing the impact of adding a face-to-face intervention using Peyton’s four-step approach to a gamified e-learning module. Sixty-five student paramedics participated in this study. The proportion of doffing sequences correctly performed was higher in the blended learning group (33.3% (95%CI 18.0 to 51.8) versus 9.7% (95%CI 2.0 to 25.8), p = 0.03). Moreover, knowledge and skill retention four to eight weeks after the teaching intervention were also higher in this group. Even though this study supports the use of a blended learning approach to teach doffing sequences, the low number of student paramedics able to adequately perform this procedure supports the need for iterative training sessions. Further studies should determine how often such sessions should be carried out.

Psychological State and Exam Performance among Paramedics’ Students in Geneva during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mixed Methods Study

“…Psychomotor skills cannot be developed through video conferencing. For example, Currat et al found that adding face-to-face training to an e-learning module increased proficiency and enhanced skill retention in student paramedics [ 37 , 38 ].…”

Impact of Non-Face-to-Face Teaching with Passive Training on Personal Protective Equipment Use in Health Science Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…In our study, we observed that the total number of tasks violated was higher in the non-face-to-face teaching with passive training group. Currat et al [38] also found that adding to a passive training (a gamified e-learning module) an active intervention (face-to-face intervention using Peyton's four-step approach) in a cohort of 65 paramedic students produced a higher proportion of doffing sequences properly performed compared to the passive intervention group (33.3%, 95% CI 18.0 to 51.8 versus 9.7%, 95% CI 2.0 to 25.8; p = 0.03). In addition, the self-assessment of the management of PPE reported by the students in our study has revealed that students felt more confident in donning and doffing after receiving face-to-face teaching with active training.…”

The European Conference on Education 2022: Official Conference Proceedings

“…Of course, on-line teaching methods differ significantly from each other, so it is quite important to investigate the efficiency and appropriateness of each individual method for obtaining different types of knowledge and skills. In another research, while analyzing the impact of face-to-face teaching in addition to electronic learning, Currat et al (2022) showed that live teaching improved skill acquisition and enhanced skill retention. Contrary to the stated finding, another study (Heitmann et al, 2022) examined the lecturer ratings of student's theoretical knowledge and practical skills in two clinical teaching formats, with and without patient contact, where the group without patient contact was rated significantly better by the lecturers.…”

“…Ensuring conditions for acquiring knowledge in a profession that cares of the well-being of others is always a priority and, although covid measures are becoming milder and do not have an enormous impact on education currently, some innovations that arose during the pandemic may be worth keeping. The medical students experiences with online education, anxiety, perceived academic performance and obstacles related to online education Perception and the impact of online education on medical students' anxiety and perceived level of performance Rise in hours spent on online education; recorded video tutorials rated most effective; minority inform of online form as nonstimulating and difficult to engage in; less than half enjoyed online medical education; identified positive side was less time consumption Currat et al (2022) The respondents were divided into 2 groups (only online learning, and online learning + live learning)…”