The Development and Impact of Clinical Skills Handbooks in Undergraduate Medical Education

Abstract

Introduction: Traditional teaching of clinical skills in medical school commonly entails didactic teaching followed by practice sessions with Standardized Patients (SPs) for particular skills, such as the cardiovascular exam. To address the need for briefer and more concise reference guides from standard textbooks and to consolidate skills expectations, the University of Ottawa developed clinical skills handbooks for students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate students’ use of these handbooks in the pre-clinical and clinical years.

Methods: We distributed a survey to second, third, and fourth year medical students at the University of Ottawa from November 2016 to January 2017. The survey assessed how frequently students used the booklets and their opinions on the usefulness of the booklets as a learning tool.

Results: There were 121 respondents of 492 students eligible for the survey. Of the respondents, 96.7% claimed to have used the booklets, and 75% claimed it was their primary resource for physical exam skills education. The majority of pre-clinical students used the booklets when learning a physical exam – 65% almost always, and 97% at least sometimes. The majority of clinical students (also referred to as clerkship students) used the booklets when reviewing a physical exam – 25% almost always, and 64% at least sometimes. Most students used the booklets when studying for OSCEs – 65% almost always, and 94% at least sometimes.

Conclusions: Students at the University of Ottawa found the clinical skills handbooks to be a valuable resource during their medical training and for the majority, it was their most commonly used reference. These findings support the need for further development and use of these resources.