Acquisition of endoscopic nasal surgery skills with a lamb's head model

Abstract Objectives: To evaluate the acquisition of surgical skills by otolaryngology residents and established the minimum number of dissections of a lamb's model to be performed before practicing on human patients. Methods: Nineteen second-year otolaryngology residents performed ten dissections each, five on each nasal cavity, always practicing the same three surgical procedures on the lamb model. Each student's training lasted 2-months, and the entire training intervention lasted 4-years, over four generations of residents. All dissections were recorded and were selected at random for examination by two independent otolaryngology surgeons, who were otherwise not involved in the research. Assessment of the 190 dissections used an instrument validated for surgical training of medical residents. Results: To a 1% significance level, statistical analysis revealed increased performance and satisfactory results were observed after the sixth dissection. Furthermore, after the eighth dissection, skill acquisition was relevant and sustained. Conclusion: Training in endoscopic nasal surgery on a lamb's head model improves surgical skills and handling of surgical instruments. Our results showed the relevance of the lamb model for training in otolaryngology surgery, impacting on patient safety. Level of evidence: 2.

Efficacy of Multimedia Set on Acquisition Clinical Skills, Views of Medical Students in UMS.

Undergraduate training in Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgery is often challenged by the short posting and limited patient contact. Multimedia is an useful tool in medical education to enhance clinical skills training. However, there is limited research on the development of such tools. We describe the development of an innovative multimedia set, where Mayer‘s principles for designing multimedia were followed in preparing an interactive CD-ROM. The developed set integrated basic sciences and clinical applications. The views of a sample of fourth year medical students and general practitioners were explored about the usefulness of this developed multimedia in facilitating the acquisition of clinical skills. The instructor led the live demonstration for the clinical examination. Then, students interacted with the multimedia set in a ratio of 4 students to 1 computer. Immediately afterwards, they practiced the technique of clinical examination of the nose. End of the session feedback revealed that most of the students found the innovative set had simplified the difficult techniques and rated it very good to excellent. Shortcomings in producing a perfect media tool are related to unavailability of media professionals in the institute. However, the prototype product was found effective in acquisition clinical skills and enhancing cognitive outcome. The continuous development of multimedia materials will improve the skills of the crew and the quality of the multimedia product.