Video monitoring and slide and video presentations as tools for surgical education

To provide medical students with good visualization and understanding of surgical procedures, we used video monitoring (Monitor) in the operating room and slide (Slide) and video (Video) presentation in the conferences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of these visual aids on surgical education.

One hundred and twenty-nine fifth- and sixth-year medical students completed a questionnaire regarding their visualization of, understanding of, and interest in all surgical procedures observed and procedures pertaining to their assigned patients. The score was collected on a Likert-type scores ranged from 1 for "poor" to 5 for "excellent".

Visualization and understanding scores were significantly lower for direct observation than for Monitor (p<0.01 and p<0.001), Slide (p<0.001 and p<0.001) and Video (p<0.001 and p<0.001). Interest scores did not differ between observation methods. For all observation methods, understanding of and interest in the surgical procedures were significantly greater in relation to assigned patients than in relation to all patients observed.

Video monitoring and slide and video presentations enhance students' understanding of and interest in surgical procedures. Contributing to the care of assigned patient also increases understanding of and interest in general surgery.