Purpose: To empower senior medical students to serve as educators to community first responders.
Background: Pre-hospital deliveries and obstetric emergencies are uncommonly encountered. Accordingly, emergency medical personnel/first responders frequently request refresher courses to develop and maintain skills. Our objective was to provide an outreach course for community first responders that permitted our senior medical students to serve as educators.
Methods: We developed a curriculum for emergency medical personnel/first responders and taught by senior medical students planning to pursue residency in obstetrics and gynecology (OBGYN). Senior medical students were trained by OBGYN faculty before independently teaching the sessions, which consisted of a lecture on pre-hospital obstetric emergency management (vaginal and breech deliveries, umbilical cord prolapse, shoulder dystocia and maternal hemorrhage control) followed by simulations utilizing portable obstetric half-manikins. First responder participants’ knowledge and comfort levels were assessed before and after each session.
Results: Ten sessions were taught by senior medical students over a 3-month period to 59 first responders. Mean first-responder scores on the pre- and post-curriculum knowledge assessment were 45% and 99% correct, respectively (p< 0.001). Before the course, 55% felt confident to perform an emergency field delivery compared to 100% after the course (p< 0.001).
Discussions: After initial training, senior medical students are effective teachers to community first responders in the management of pre-hospital obstetric emergencies. The future direction of this project will be to develop a regularly available curriculum to enhance educational partnerships between medical schools and community first responders.
Topics: CREOG & APGO Annual Meeting, 2021, Student, Resident, Faculty, Clerkship Director, Clerkship Coordinator, Osteopathic Faculty, Residency Director, Residency Coordinator, Patient Care, Medical Knowledge, Practice-Based Learning & Improvement, GME, CME, UME, Assessment, Simulation, Lecture, Problem-Based Learning, Team-Based Learning, General Ob-Gyn,
Nicholas Stansbury, MD, UT Health San Antonio; Veronica Riggs, MD; Jorge Pescador, MD; Erin Mankus, MD; Sarah Page-Ramsey, MD
