Preliminary evaluation of junior medical students' exposure and comfort with performing the basic head and neck examination

Abstract

A specialized teaching session significantly improved medical students' comfort levels in performing the H&NPE and increased their awareness of the importance of OTO-HNS in medical training immediately after the session.

Association between HPV and Head and Neck Cancer: Differences in Understanding among Three Distinct Populations

“…This has been related to a lack of information regarding HNCA presented in the medical school curricula. [15,16,17] If our future healthcare providers are unaware of the association between HPV and HNCA, they cannot adequately counsel and educate their patients regarding its risks, signs, and symptoms.…”

“…[9] Prevention of cervical cancer includes primary prevention through the HPV vaccination and secondary prevention through cervical cancer screening with the Papanicalaou (Pap) test. A quadravalent vaccine protecting against HPV types 16,18,6, and 11 became widely available and commercialized beginning in 2006. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend the vaccine be administered to females and males aged 9 to 26 to prevent genital warts and anogenital cancers.…”

“…[14] However, it has been shown that medical students lack information regarding HNCA risk factors, oral screening guidelines, and head and neck examination techniques. [15,16,17] These studies did not examine medical student knowledge about HPV as a risk factor for head and neck cancer.…”

Medical Students’ Comfort Levels With Performing the Basic Head and Neck Examination in Practice: Follow-up During the Core Clerkship Year

“…The Figure illustrates the timing of each survey administration and the response rate for each survey administration. 11 The mean Likert rating scores were compared between presurveys and follow-up surveys, as well as between postsurveys and follow-up surveys, using an unpaired, 2-tailed Student t test with a significance level of 0.05. 11 These results are summarized in the Table. All 1-year follow-up comfort levels were statistically higher than comfort levels reported before the teaching session (p o 0.0001).…”

“…Our previous study provided preliminary results on junior medical students' comfort levels toward performing elements of and the complete H&NPE, as well as their exposure to and attitudes toward otolaryngology, before and after our annual department-led teaching session. 11 The results were very encouraging-a coordinated H&NPE teaching session, in which medical students were taught basic H&NPE examination skills by resident and faculty physicians followed by practice on student partners, was not only well received as an effective and interesting teaching tool, but it also served to significantly increase students' comfort levels in performing this complex examination. The session secondarily introduced medical students to the specialty of otolaryngology and helped them realize the importance and predominance of otolaryngologic complaints in primary care medicine.…”