Abstract
Purpose
Students attend operating room sessions throughout their medical school training and are often given the opportunity to scrub and assist during the surgery. Many students have no or very little formal teaching in operating room etiquette, which leads to last minute on the job training from operating room staff. This study aimed to identify if there was any difference between the students knowledge, technique and competency in operating room etiquette skills between two groups of students who received different methods of teaching.
Method
Thirty three 2nd year medical students, that had no previous exposure to operating room etiquette, were recruited for this study. There was variation in their age 18 to 27 years (mean SD years; 19.7 1.9). All students were initially observed scrubbing, gowning and gloving using their baseline knowledge. Their technique was scored using the Dundee University Assessment Sheet and each students knowledge was tested using a spot the mistake quiz. The students were ranked on initial competency then using randomised stratification, separated into two groups. Group One received traditional teaching by operating room staff. Group Two was taught using the new operating room etiquette course, which includes a power point presentation, a video and a practical session. Both groups knowledge and practical skills were reassessed following their teaching. The assessment was repeated at 3 months using the same method, to measure longer-term learning.
Results
Those taught by the new operating room etiquette course have statistically significant (p=0.05) better knowledge (85.7%) of the principles of operating etiquette than the students taught by traditional teaching methods (79.2%). A comparison of the change in the mean gowning and gloving scores, between immediately after the teaching sessions and at three months displayed a decrease in Group Ones score by 24.3% and a decrease in Group Twos score by 14.7%. Group One showed a statistically significant larger deterioration (p=0.045) when compared with Group Two.
Conclusion
The new operating room etiquette course shows a greater improvement in the students knowledge of the principles of operating room etiquette than the traditional on the job teaching. Those taught by the new operating room etiquette course had a better technique for gloving and gowning at three months than those taught by traditional methods. Despite this, more practice is still needed to improve their knowledge and competency to scrub in the operating room.
