Teaching Effective Informed Consent Communication Skills in the Virtual Surgical Clerkship.
J Am Coll Surg
; 233(1): 64-72.e2, 2021 07.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1230586
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The disruption by the COVID-19 pandemic on undergraduate medical education allowed for assessment of virtual curricular innovations. One of the difficulties encountered in the virtual curriculum is the teaching of clinical competencies that would traditionally require students to undergo in-person simulations and patient encounters. We implemented a novel informed consent activity module, with standardized patients, to improve self-efficacy in communication within our core surgery clerkship. STUDYDESIGN:
All medical students who participated in the virtual surgery clerkship were recruited to participate in a retrospective survey study regarding the novel informed consent module. These questions evaluated their perceived competence in 4 domains relating to informed consent identifying the key elements, describing common challenges, applying the New Mexico Clinical Communication Scale (NMCCS), and documenting.RESULTS:
Thirty-four of 90 students participated in the study (38% of the cohort). Respondents to the survey reported that their self-efficacy in communication skills related to informed consent improved as a result of their participation in the activity in each of the 4 domains surveyed (p < 0.01), with the majority of students identifying as satisfactory or above in each domain post-module. Students generally viewed the virtual informed consent activity positively, but noted that it was not the same as an in-person clinical experience.CONCLUSIONS:
A virtual module of communication skills training, using standardized patients and faculty, improved students' belief in their self-efficacy in obtaining informed consent. This communication module can be useful in a virtual or mixed curricular structure for both current and future medical students.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Physician-Patient Relations
/
General Surgery
/
Clinical Clerkship
/
Education, Medical, Undergraduate
/
Ethics, Medical
/
Informed Consent
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Young adult
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
J Am Coll Surg
Journal subject:
Gynecology
/
Obstetrics
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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