Purpose: To evaluate how early exposure to clerkship content in a 2 -week virtual elective prepares students for success in a traditional in-person clerkship.
Background: Virtual clerkships have not been evaluated on effectiveness for increasing student success, defined as self—perceived preparedness, increased confidence with clinical knowledge, and final examination scores for the traditional OB/GYN clerkship.
Methods: Third-year medical students elected to take the two-week virtual OB/GYN elective (VE) created by Larner College of Medicine through the APGO website. Participants took a pre- and post-survey remotely. Final UWise examination scores of VE participants and nonparticipants were compared at the end of the traditional OB/GYN clerkship.
Results: VE participants reported greater preparedness in daily management of OB/GYN activities (p=0.0001); confidence in helping in obstetrical emergencies (p=0.009); virtual elective as realistic interpretation of OB/GYN events (p=0.0001); and confidence in technology utilized throughout the course (p=0.003).VE participants and non-participants did not differ on confidence after traditional clerkship (p=0.782) or UWise test scores (p=0.34).
Discussions: VE participants felt more prepared for the daily management of OB/GYN activities and more confident about helping in obstetrical emergencies. The lack of a difference for UWise examination scores may be due to the VE and the traditional clerkship covering the same information suggesting that both experiences sufficiently covered the material. It is notable that all VE participants ‘strongly agreed’ that they had more confidence while entering the traditional clerkship.Future aims include investigation of how technology and consistent early virtual exposure enhances medical education, clerkship performance, and recruitment of students into unmatched specialities.
Topics: CREOG & APGO Annual Meeting, 2022, Clerkship Director, Clerkship Coordinator, Medical Knowledge, Systems-Based Practice & Improvement, Practice-Based Learning & Improvement, UME, Assessment, Lecture, Team-Based Learning, General Ob-Gyn,
Elisabeth Adkins, B.S., Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine; Geoffrey Towers, MD; Marilyn Kindig, DO
