Effectiveness of ECG educational workshops among undergraduate medical students

The electrocardiogram (ECG) remains one of the most important and commonly used diagnostic tools in medicine. At the faculty of Medicine of Tunis (FMT), teaching ECG interpretation to undergraduate medical students is an important part of the curriculum.

To assess the effectiveness of pedagogical workshops in ECG learning among students of First-year of the primary cycle of medical studies (PCMS 1). In addition, we aimed to assess the students' perceptions of the tutorials.

It was an exhaustive cross-sectional study that was carried out at the FMT during the academic year 2017-2018 and that included students from PCMS 1. All participants completed a pre-test, a workshop session and a post-test. Each of the tests consists of five Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) covering the same topics. An evaluation of students' satisfaction with the tutorial was made at the end of the session.

Ten workshops were held at the FMT, including 160 students. The overall score increased from 4 out of 10 points in the pre-test to 6.8 out of 10 points in the post-test (p <0.001). A statistically significant improvement was noted in all tests questions (p<0.001). Sixty-one learners (39.3%) were "Not satisfied" with the number of students per group. On the whole, 83.8% (n=130) of students found the session beneficial.

Students indicated a positive attitude toward the workshop and its utility. More research among similar populations is needed to support these conclusions and to assess the effectiveness of medium- and long-term educational workshops on medical students.