Introduction of an undergraduate interprofessional simulation based skills training program in obstetrics and gynaecology in India

Abstract

Interprofessional simulation based education (SBE) improves core clinical skills and team training in obstetrics and gynaecology. In this innovative study, the introduction of an undergraduate interprofessional SBE program for teaching obstetrics and gynaecology skills in India was evaluated. The study attempted to evaluate the feasibility and benefit of the interprofessional skills training workshop in obstetrics and gynaecology, which was introduced for medical and midwifery students in a secondary level hospital in India. The program focuses on improving “hands-on” clinical skills and can be explained by the “skills acquisition theory”. Using a survey, participants rated relevance, pitch and confidence (on a 5-point Likert scale) and described the contextualisation and teaching of core clinical skills through the workshop using free-text. Descriptive analysis of quantitative Likert scale responses and thematic analysis of the free-text data was conducted and themes identified. Ninety-five medical and midwifery students attended the inaugural workshop, in a low-resource setting. The clinical experience in obstetrics and gynaecology across both groups was minimal, neither were they exposed to any prior SBE. Both health professional groups found the workshop useful, relevant and improved their confidence in performing vaginal examination and births. The key theme, which emerged from qualitative analysis, was “getting hands-on” experience. Other themes included learning by simulation without clinical time constraints, retaining the ability to make mistakes, bridging theory to practice, valuing interprofessional experience and ensuring equal learning opportunities for all participating professional groups. The advantages of interprofessional SBE, for medical and midwifery students, are reproducible in a low-resource setting, and may be be helpful for learning intimate clinical examination, obstetric procedures and team training.

Online interprofessional simulation for undergraduate health professional students during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Simulation-Based Education (SBE) offers the opportunity to develop these interprofessional interactions (Gorantla et al, 2019). The benefits of SBE in maternity care amongst midwifery and medical students extend beyond improving communication in a multidisciplinary team (Wilson et al, 2016).…”

The use of interprofessional simulation interventions in medical student education: A scoping review

“…Appendix A (51 studies) includes studies that used an emergency (Joyal et al, 2015;Ker et al, 2003;Nikendei et al, 2016;Shrader, McRae, et al, 2011). Four studies used a high-fidelity IPL simulation intervention in the context of teaching procedures related to obstetrics (Gorantla et al, 2019;Kumar, Gilmour, et al, 2014) and general surgery (Paige et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2015) on mannequins.…”

ABC of Surgical Teaching: Time to Consider a Global Blueprint for Holistic Education

“…SBL has also proven to be an efficient and safe way of providing surgical education [14,15]. There are several examples, internationally, demonstrating the value of integration of SBL early in medical education, i.e., even at the undergraduate level especially for aspiring surgeons [13,[16][17][18][19][20][21].…”