Learning technical gestures by medical students: development and contribution of a written procedural document...

To develop procedural documents of three gestures taught in endocrinology and to assess their contribution in the procedural learning of students.

Prospective randomized controlled study, comparing a self-learning tool combining a video and a procedural document (PD), with a guided teaching (GT) of a technical gesture by a teacher. The study involved 89 students randomized into: an intervention group (I1;n=47) and a control group (I0;n=42). All the participants had GT regarding blood pressure measurement, thyroid examination, and waist circumference measurement. Then, the GroupI1 received three PD and three videos illustrating the same gestures. A week later, an assessment was performed. Group I0 received the documents after the assessment. The student satisfaction with the two methods was evaluated.

The percentage of students who used PD and videos was comparable between the two groups (68to79% in groupI1 and 76to86% in groupI0, p between0.161and0.827). The mean evaluation score respectively at the thyroid examination station, blood pressure and waist circumference measurement was 8.07±1.28 in groupI1 versus7.94±1.01 in group I0(p=0.634),7.51±1.11versus7.68±0.96(p=0.466) and7.41±1.37versus6.94±1.34(p=0.132). The mean satisfaction score of the two teaching tools was respectively in group I1 versus I0, of (9.38±1.53 and 8.88±1.63; p=0.195), (9.39±1,65 and 9.25±0.76, p=0.658) and (9.43±1.59 and9.24±0.82,p=0.543).The GT satisfaction score was 9.34±1.40 in I1group versus 9.62±0.46 in I0group, p=0.227. The power of the statistical test was less than 10%.

The lack of significant difference between the evaluation scores of the two groups could be explained by the low rate of consultation of the educational tools and the small sample size.