Individualised Expert Feedback is Not Essential for Improving Basic Clinical Skills Performance in Novice Learners: A...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Skills Training
• Health Professions Education

Background:

• Feedback is crucial for learning but varies in quality and delivery.
• Video technology is increasingly used for providing feedback in medical training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the effectiveness of unsupervised video feedback (UVF) versus direct expert feedback (DEF) in enhancing medical students' basic surgical skills.
• To evaluate skill improvement in intravenous cannulation, catheterization, and suturing.

Main Methods:

• A prospective, blinded randomized trial was conducted with 71 medical students.
• Students received either DEF or UVF after performing and being recorded on basic surgical tasks.
• Performance was assessed by blinded experts using a validated proforma.

Main Results:

• All students showed significant improvement from baseline scores (p < 0.05).
• Unsupervised video feedback (UVF) led to greater improvement in cannulation skills (9.5%) compared to direct expert feedback (DEF) (4.3%) (p = 0.044).
• No significant differences in improvement were observed between UVF and DEF for catheterization (p = 0.96) and suturing (p = 0.54).

Conclusions:

• Video-assisted feedback significantly enhances clinical skills in novice medical students.
• Direct expert feedback (DEF) offers no significant additional benefit over unsupervised video feedback (UVF).
• Utilizing generic expert videos with self-review provides comparable skill improvement, impacting training design and delivery.