Virginia Research Day 2021

Student Research Educational

Watson Edwards, BSN; Fred Rawlins, DO; Kim Gittings, BSN; Janella Looney, MSHI; Ryan Martin, HSOS; Ning Cheng, PhD; Sarah Astrab, OMS III; Nirav Patel, OMS III Corresponding author: npatel05@vcom.edu 03 Cardiac Dysrhythmia Management Simulation with Undergraduate Medical Students: Improving Student Performance Through Curricular Design

Via College of Osteopathic Medicine-Virginia Campus

The goal of any medical school is to effectively prepare students for residency and have them enter the clinical arena with confidence in their skills. Over the years, traditional didactic-based medical education has been transitioned to a more hands-on curriculum to further prepare students. The development and advancement of simulation technologies has been useful in connecting the interface between the classroom and the clinical environment. With advances in technology, simulated patients can closely mimic human patients, allowing students to practice complex procedures such as managing cardiac dysrhythmias. The purpose of this study was to compare first-year medical students’ understanding of cardiac dysrhythmias and their ability to apply their knowledge clinically after simulation-based learning. The study was conducted using 161 first-year osteopathic medical students in a longitudinal pretest-posttest design. Students were assessed with a 15-question pretest and posttest prior to simulation-based learning and completing the simulation assessment, respectively. Students were

also assessed with one qualitative evaluation during a medical school-approved cardiopulmonary cardiac dysrhythmia stimulation course. All participants were provided with didactics, self-directed learning modules, and an optional in-person experimental cardiac dysrhythmia stimulation workshop. These educational modalities were focused on teaching students to apply algorithms to successfully manage cardiac dysrhythmias at a ready-to-practice level. Using two sets of dysrhythmia scenarios, students were presented four distinct cardiac dysrhythmias, out of a possible seven, during a 20-minute simulation scenario. Each student was evaluated based on how they applied the algorithms to manage the dysrhythmias presented. They were scored on their ability to apply the algorithm in the correct sequence and apply the correct treatment. Scores were calculated using a checklist outlining each step in the treatment and then tallied. Student performance on each test was related to the educational steps completed prior to the test and compared to each other.

A McNemar’s test was used to compare knowledge gains through pretest, posttest, and simulation performance scores. Scores were categorized as either “good” if they scored 100% on the quiz or “poor” for all other scores. When comparing pretest to posttest, and pre and posttest to simulation performances, all instances were statistically significant with a McNemar’s Test p-value <.0001. Out of 161 students, results show a 6.21% improvement of student scores of “good” in the pretest and posttest, 7 and 17, respectively. Student scores of “good” improved 3.72% from pretest to simulation performance, 7 and 13, respectively. Finally, a 2.49% improvement of student scores of “good” was evident from simulation performance to posttest, 13 and 17, respectively. The instructional strategies employed during the cardiac dysrhythmia course promoted knowledge gains shown by the improvement in scores.

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