Online Learning for Surgical Skill in Clinical-year Medical Students: a Rapid Review

Surgical skills are essential competencies in medical education. All doctors registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) are required to perform surgical tasks safely and effectively. There are no reviews specifically investigating the use of online learning in teaching surgical skills for medical students in their clinical years. The aim of this rapid review was to investigate the effectiveness and perceptions of online teaching of surgical skills for medical students in their clinical years.

A rapid review was performed of the MEDLINE and EMBASE database in line with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The quality of the searched articles was evaluated using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument. Both observational studies and randomised controlled trials were included in the review if they met the inclusion criteria of involving medical students in their clinical years, online learning, and surgical-related skills or content.

Our search strategy yielded 140 studies. Eleven studies were included in the review equating to an analysis of 636 medical students. The results indicate that online teaching of surgical skills allows improved surgical skill acquisition, with medical students having an overall positive perception towards it.

This rapid review suggests that online teaching of surgical skills can be effective for medical students in their clinical years in surgical skill acquisition and positive medical student perception. Further studies with larger sample sizes are required to support the conclusions of this review.