BackgroundObjective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are a common form of assessment used across medical schools in the UK to assess clinical competence and practical skills and are traditionally held in an in-person format. In the past, medical students have often prepared for such exams through in-person peer-assisted learning (PAL), however, due to the recent Covid-19 pandemic, many in-person teaching sessions transitioned to online-based formats. There is currently a paucity of research on the utility of virtual PAL OSCE sessions and thus, we carried out a national pilot study to determine the effectiveness of virtual OSCE teaching via feedback from participants and examiners. MethodsA total of 85 students attended from 19 UK-based medical schools with eight students based internationally attended the series of online OSCE workshops delivered via ZoomⓇ. All students and examiners completed a feedback questionnaire at the end of each session regarding parameters, which included questions on pre-and post-workshop confidence in three OSCE domains: history-taking, communication and data interpretation. The five-point Likert scale was used to self-report confidence, and the results were analysed using the Mann-Whitney U test after assessing for normality using the Shapiro-Wilk test.Results Results from student feedback showed an increase in confidence for all three OSCE domains after each event (p<0.001) with 69.4% agreeing or strongly agreeing that online OSCE sessions could sufficiently prepare them for in-person exams. Questionnaire feedback revealed that 97.6% of students and 86.7% of examiners agreed that virtual OSCE teaching would be useful for preparing for in-person OSCE examinations after the pandemic. ConclusionThe majority of participants in the virtual OSCE sessions reported an improvement in their confidence in history-taking, communication and data interpretation skills. The majority of participants and examiners also reported that they found virtual OSCE sessions to be as engaging and as interactive as in-person teaching. This study has demonstrated that virtual OSCE workshops can serve as a valuable learning resource for students with the potential to be beneficial beyond the pandemic, however, further studies that directly compare academic outcomes between in-person and virtual OSCE teaching sessions are required.

Background Core Surgical Training (CST) is a competitive two-year postgraduate training program in the UK that is scored based on three equally weighted stations: management, clinical and portfolio. Preparing a surgical portfolio can start in medical school, however, there is limited guidance on what forms a competitive portfolio with the majority of advice coming from surgical societies and mentors, which are variable throughout the country. Our aim was to assess the utility of a webinar to educate students and doctors on the CST portfolio to address this disparity. Methods Pre- and post-event questionnaires that included demographic data, 10-point Likert scales to self-report confidence on understanding of the CST portfolio and its domains, and questions on utilising webinars were distributed to attendees. Pre- and post-event responses were paired, and scores were assessed for normality via the Shapiro-Wilk test; the Mann-Whitney U test was used to assess statistical significance. Cohen's d effect sizes were calculated to report standardised differences between pre- and post-event scores. Results A total of 177 participants from over 24 countries attended and responded to both questionnaires. A statistically significant improvement in awareness of how to score maximum points was demonstrated across all nine CST domains (p < 0.0001). Almost half of the participants stated a preference for a webinar over an in-person format and only less than a third felt that webinars limited their ability to network and socialise at such events. Interestingly, most attendees did not feel that their university had provided them with adequate information on preparing for a surgical career with over half of the attendees stating that they had to attend events by external organisations to obtain such information. Conclusions This study has demonstrated that a webinar can be effectively utilised to educate students and doctors on the various domains of the CST portfolio and how to maximise points in each section. Such events could address the variability of societies and mentors across the country and provide equal opportunities for students. Further studies that directly compare webinars with in-person events and investigate long-term outcomes, such as success in CST applications, are required.