Are medical students being taught invasive skills using simulation?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Skills Training
• Simulation in Healthcare

Background:

• Traditional invasive procedural skills are taught during clerkships.
• Simulation offers a safe environment for practicing invasive skills.
• Assessing simulation training prevalence for procedural skills in medical school is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the prevalence of simulation training for invasive and semi-invasive procedural skills during medical school.
• To evaluate the extent of formal instruction versus simulation-based training.
• To understand the impact of training on procedural attempts and successes.

Main Methods:

• Surveyed 357 incoming interns at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital from 2008-2010.
• Questionnaire covered formal instruction and simulation for 34 procedures.
• Interns reported attempts and successes for procedures in clinical care.

Main Results:

• 75% of interns received formal instruction for most basic procedures, but only 3 advanced procedures were widely taught.
• Simulation training prevalence was 46% for basic and 23% for advanced procedures.
• Average attempts/successes: 6.5/6.2 for basic, 1.5/1.3 for advanced procedures.

Conclusions:

• Formal instruction is common for basic procedures, but less so for advanced ones.
• Simulation use is less frequent than didactic instruction.
• Increased simulation integration in undergraduate and graduate medical education is recommended.