Background
The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequent “social distancing” has fueled the use of social media platforms for educational purposes. Since the start of the pandemic, a plethora of experts and self-proclaimed experts have been keenly delivering webinars on COVID. This begs the question “Do webinars on COVID-19 really help in the improvement of knowledge base or management skills?”. The questionnaire was designed to assess information regarding COVID-webinars and their usefulness from the end-user standpoint. The response to the questions was measured using a 4- or 5-point Likert scale. The survey was open for a 4-week period with the extension of 1 week.
Results
The response rate was 54% as 270 out of 500 participants responded to the questionnaire. The majority of the respondents were anesthesiologists in-training, post-graduates, fellows, and seniors belonging to tertiary care settings with fewer percentages belonging to physicians and others. Most of the doctors had attended an average of 2 webinars per week. The tests of model effects showed a significant negative correlation of webinar quality ratings for district hospital healthcare setting of the attendees (of p value of 0.013) and for the number of COVID-related webinars attended per week (p value of 0.009).
Conclusions
Most respondents had favorable perceptions of webinars happening during the pandemic. However, there is a need for improvisation in the volume of webinars, target-audience-based delivery, and participant interaction to add value to this new dimension of teaching-learning.
Background:To ensure patient safety, it is important to regularly assess the knowledge and practical skills of anesthesia trainees. This study was conducted to evaluate the competency of the residents and the impact of various corrective measures in the form of didactic lectures and clinical skill demonstrations on the conduct of various procedural skills by the residents.Materials and Methods:Ninety-five junior residents were enrolled in this study. Assessment of competency of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year residents in performing various procedure skills of anesthesia was done in two stages using procedure specific checklist (PSC) and Global Rating Scales (GRSs). Preliminary results of the first assessment (Score 1) were discussed with the residents; deficiencies were identified and corrective measures suggested by didactic lectures and clinical skill demonstrations which were followed by a subsequent assessment after 3 months (Score 2).Results:There was a statistically significant improvement in the PSC and GRS scores after corrective measures for all the procedural interventions studied. Percentage increase in scores was maximum in 1st year (42.98 ± 6.62) followed by 2nd year (34.62 ± 5.49) and minimum in 3rd year residents (18.06 ± 3.69). The percentage increase of scores was almost similar for all subset of procedural skills; low, intermediate, and high skill anesthetic procedures.Conclusion:For assessment of procedural skills of residents, use of PSC and GRS scores should be incorporated and the same should be used to monitor the impact of various corrective measures (didactic lectures and clinical skill demonstrations) on the conduct of various procedural skills by the resident.
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