Academic ability and teamworking in medical students

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Healthcare Simulation
• Teamwork Assessment

Background:

• Teamworking is a core competency for doctors, mandated by the General Medical Council (GMC).
• Current medical school assessments often prioritize knowledge and individual skills over teamwork.
• Assessing teamwork effectively presents a significant challenge in medical training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the correlation between academic performance in final medical examinations and teamworking skills.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of different grouping strategies in a simulated clinical environment for assessing teamwork.

Main Methods:

• A simulation session was conducted in a 22-bed simulated ward with 119 final-year medical students.
• Students were grouped based on academic performance (stratified) or mixed academic ability.
• Teamworking was assessed using the individual Teamwork Observation and Feedback Tool (iTOFT) during real-time observation.

Main Results:

• Groups with mixed academic performance demonstrated significantly better teamworking ability compared to stratified groups (p=0.045).
• Final medical school assessments were found to be poor predictors of teamworking skills.
• Students with higher academic scores tended to underperform in teamworking tasks.

Conclusions:

• Medical school assessments are inadequate for evaluating essential teamworking skills.
• Simulated learning environments offer a valuable platform for assessing non-technical skills.
• Future medical education should incorporate diverse assessment methods to evaluate teamworking and other non-technical skills.