Senior Medical Student-Led Interactive Small-Group Module on Acute Fracture Management

Virtual Trauma Meeting as a Component of Undergraduate Orthopaedic Education

Introduction: Virtual teaching has proven effective for medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is the first to describe an undergraduate orthopaedic teaching strategy in the format of virtual trauma meetings (VTM).

Methods: Clinical medical students from the Universities of Bristol and Cardiff were invited to attend five VTM between October and November 2020. These were delivered by consultants and speciality doctors via Zoom software. An 11-item feedback form was distributed after each session to assess the relevance of teaching material, student confidence in asking and answering questions, and if students would benefit from further sessions. Several open-ended questions were designed to evaluate aspects of the session that were most useful, which orthopaedic topics were of high priority and if they had any suggestions for improvement. Our initial aim was to assess student acceptance of the virtual format. Several months later pre-recorded material was uploaded onto YouTube and post hoc questionnaires were analysed.

Results: A total of 50 students attended, with a median of 11±6 attending per session, producing a total of 26 feedback responses. Among the responders, there were 10 males and nine females and 63% of the students were in their third year. 100% of students felt comfortable asking questions and 96% felt comfortable answering questions. X-ray interpretation and management of fractures were the highest priority subjects. The majority of students considered the interaction between senior and junior doctors most valuable, and the most common improvement suggested was the inclusion of polls or OSCE-styled questions.

Conclusions: VTM could be a useful resource to enhance undergraduate trauma and orthopaedic (T&O) education by providing student-focused material in an open learning environment.

Current State of Undergraduate Trauma and Orthopaedics Training in United Kingdom: A Survey-based Study of Undergraduate Teaching Experience and Subjective Clinical Competence in Final-year Medical Students

OBJECTIVE

To assess the quality and duration of trauma and orthopedics (T&O) training in medical schools in United Kingdom (UK), and to evaluate final-year students' self-perceived level of competence in essential T&O skills.

DESIGN

This was a survey-based study of final-year medical students that attended 1-day undergraduate T&O courses held between Feb'17 and Feb'19. Outcome measures were duration and perceived quality of undergraduate T&O placements, students' self-rated competence in essential T&O skills, and impact of teaching methods on their subjective future competence.

SETTING

Four courses held at education centers in 3 different locations in UK (London, Nottingham, and Leeds) PARTICIPANTS: All 414 course attendees from 13 UK medical schools completed the questionnaire.

RESULTS

19.3% of students had not experienced a placement in T&O. Mean duration of T&O placements was 2.5 weeks. 37.4% described their training as "poor". Majority of students attended 1-5 sessions of: lectures (50.5%), small group teaching (58.7%), trauma meetings (58.7%), clinics (65.7%), and theatres (72.5%). Lowest competency scores were reported in management of T&O emergencies, fracture management, and interpretation of T&O radiographs. Self-rated competence in essential T&O skills was significantly higher in students with previous experience of a T&O placement (p < 0.05). There was a strongly positive correlation between small group teaching attendance and perceived competence in management of T&O patients in different clinical settings (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Medical schools in UK are currently failing to adequately train medical graduates to manage T&O patients, with students reporting low competency scores in all basic T&O skills. To mitigate the current situation, a minimum duration of a T&O placement for all students must be implemented nationally. Educational boards and medical schools must work in collaboration to improve the delivery of undergraduate T&O curriculum, the structure of the clinical T&O placement, and efficacy of the commonly encountered learning environments.