Multifaceted Approach to Evaluation in a Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology Rotation for Medical Students.
Academic Article
Overview
abstract
STUDY OBJECTIVE: We evaluated whether and to what extent a novel medical student rotation in Pediatric & Adolescent Gynecology (PAG) increases clinical knowledge and skills and met student needs/expectations. DESIGN: Constructivist prospective pre-post study and post-rotation student survey. SETTING: Academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Pilot study of nine medical students, which represents the entire population who completed the rotation. INTERVENTIONS: Four-week clinical rotation in PAG. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Changes in clinical knowledge were measured by a pre- and post-intervention multiple-choice assessment and clinical skills were assessed pre- and post-intervention using Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs); this data was analyzed with paired Student's t-tests. Student evaluations of the rotation were measured through an anonymous, end-of-rotation, closed- and open-ended survey, and were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: A statistically significant increase in clinical knowledge was observed post-rotation, with a mean pre-test score of 67.0% (standard deviation [SD] 1.7%) and a mean post-test score of 75.2% (SD 3.2%, p = 0.02). Statistically significant increases were observed for all EPAs between the first and final day of the rotation. Eight students who completed the post-rotation survey rated the rotation favorably (5 on a scale from 1 to 5). CONCLUSION: A multi-pronged evaluation showed that a new PAG clinical rotation significantly increased medical students' clinical skills and knowledge. This multi-faceted evaluation method provides valuable insights to educators on how best to tailor a rotation to individual learners' levels of clinical skills and knowledge. If comparable rotations could be instituted and similarly evaluated in other medical schools, a noticeable knowledge/skill gap among trainees might be addressed.
