Website navigation and surgical education

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Digital Health

Background:

• Online surgical education websites offer accessible learning resources.
• Understanding medical student interaction with these platforms is crucial for optimizing their effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate medical student engagement with a surgical education website chapter on intussusception.
• To identify patterns in website navigation and assess students' self-reported digital literacy.

Main Methods:

• Ten medical students on pediatric surgery rotation studied an online chapter for 1 hour.
• Website navigation (time, page visits, link usage) was video-recorded.
• Students completed a questionnaire on computer and internet navigation skills.

Main Results:

• Students spent a mean of 38 minutes on the intussusception chapter, visiting pages an average of 1.8 times.
• Video content was accessed after 10 minutes, comprising 24% of chapter viewing time.
• Few students reported regular internet use for educational purposes.

Conclusions:

• Medical students utilized surgical education websites for a significant duration, but engagement varied.
• Limited regular internet use for education suggests potential challenges in adopting online learning tools.
• Further research is needed to enhance the integration of digital resources in surgical training.