What is the best option to manage the bedside teaching for Neurology Clerkship -- Demonstration, Simulation or WeChat...

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Background: Neurological clerkship is an important but challenging part of the neurology curriculum, and bedside teaching is essential for clerks to integrate complex theories and skills into practice. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the three bedside teaching methods as modified bedside demonstration, simulation via standard patients as well as WeChat-assisted teaching during neurological clerkship, in order to identify the optimal method. Design: The4 ^th-year medical students were enrolled during their neurological clerkship. Bedside teaching on topics of acute ischemic stroke, acute myelitis and myasthenia gravis were delivered in a random order of demonstration, simulation and WeChat-assisted teaching. A questionnaire was assigned to each participant at the end of the two-week clerkship to rank the three methods based on their general impression, as well as detailed assessment of clinical abilities and attitudes. Results: A total of 112 clerks were enrolled and 98 were eligible for analysis. For both general and overall ranking, simulation was the most approved bedside teaching method while WeChat-assisted teaching took the least approval among the three. A majority of participants preferred simulation because of the significant improvement on interpretation of diseases, interest in neurology, diagnostic skills, clinical skills, communication skills, empathy and protection of privacy (P＜0.05). Demonstration was considered to benefit performance in examination (P=0.009). The ranking of the three methods revealed different consistency between general impression and detailed assessment. More participants tended to underestimate themselves in simulation but to overestimate themselves in WeChat-assisted teaching (P=0.000). Conclusions: Simulation outweigh WeChat-assisted teaching and demonstration by promoting clinical skills, as well as inspiring students' academic interest, compassion and empathy in both the general ranking and the overall ranking. Clerks were tended to underestimate their clinical competence in simulation but overestimate themselves in WeChat-assisted teaching.