Teaching scripts via smartphone app facilitate resident-led teaching of medical students

Abstract

Background Previous studies have suggested that resident physicians are the most meaningful teachers during the clinical clerkships of third-year medical students (MS3s). Unfortunately, residents often feel unprepared for this crucial role. The pediatrics clerkship at our institution identified a paucity in the frequency of resident-led teaching with MS3s. Lack of confidence, suboptimal teaching space, and insufficient time were cited as the most significant barriers. To enhance resident-led teaching of MS3s, we created teaching scripts of general pediatrics topics accessible via a smartphone application (app). Methods Prior to the implementation of the app, MS3s and pediatric residents were surveyed on clerkship teaching practices. From May 2017 through July 2018, pediatric residents working with MS3s were introduced to the app, with both groups queried on resident teaching habits afterward. We compared pre-intervention and post-intervention data of time spent teaching, teaching frequency, and a ranking of pediatric resident teaching performance compared to residents of other MS3 core clerkships. Results 44 out of 90 residents (49%) responded to a pre-intervention survey on baseline teaching habits. 49 out of 61 residents (80%) completed our post-intervention survey. Pre-intervention, 75% (33/44) of residents reported spending less than 5 min per teaching session on average. Post-intervention, 67% (33/49) reported spending more than 5 min (p < 0.01). 25% (11/44) of residents reported teaching at least once per day pre-intervention, versus 55% (27/49, p = 0.12) post-intervention. Post-intervention data demonstrated a statistically significant correlation between app use and increased frequency of teaching (p < 0.01). The MS3 average ranking of pediatric resident teaching increased from 2.4 to 3.4 out of 6 (p < 0.05) after this intervention. Conclusions Residency programs looking to reform resident-led teaching, particularly of residents early in their training, should consider our novel approach. In addition to addressing barriers to teaching and creating a platform for near-peer teaching, it is adaptable to any specialty or learner level. Future direction includes developing objective measures for teaching performance and content proficiency to better assess our intervention as an educational curriculum, as well as further investigation of the intervention as a controlled trial.

Use of mobile learning applications as an innovative method for the teaching of biochemistry

“…Students performance has improved and their GPA indicates the high impact of applying such methods in teaching, especially challenging subjects such as biochemistry. Student perceptions revealed that applications were an effective and innovative tool for learning during the COVID‐19 period, based on previous trials of smartphone use 41–46 . Furthermore, regarding the perception of students about the use of smartphone applications in this study all students agreed that the applications were valuable, useful (75%), easy to use (50%), and innovative (63%), and improved their skills to answer quizzes and exams (81%).…”

“…Student perceptions revealed that applications were an effective and innovative tool for learning during the COVID-19 period, based on previous trials of smartphone use. [41][42][43][44][45][46] Furthermore, regarding the perception of students about the use of smartphone applications in this study all students agreed that the applications were valuable, useful (75%), easy to use (50%), and innovative (63%), and improved their skills to answer quizzes and exams (81%). In the same aspect of our study, smartphones could be used to promote skills for different contexts.…”

Forensica Application as Learning Media on Forensic

“…Numerous fields of education have widely used computer devices and mobile applications. Some studies have indicated the improvement of the learning experience through various forms of technology, such as digital handbook apps, mobile learning, computer device, and gamification [1][2][3][4][5].…”

“…It makes teaching methods more varied, reduces learning boredom, and then students become more active. Many fields use Android applications, including education, agriculture, language, economics, marine, and health [2].…”

“…However, there were some issues regarding the screen size, which affected the clarity of text and images, the availability of updated materials, the speed connection, and the price [2]. The collaboration model could also improve the experience.…”