Evaluation of Multidisciplinary Delivery of Surgical Anatomy Teaching

Title Evaluation of Multidisciplinary Delivery of Surgical Anatomy Teaching<br/><br/>Authors Walsh I.K., Taylor S.J., Dorman A, Boohan M. <br/><br/>Objectives To evaluate the efficacy of newly introduced multidisciplinary methods to deliver Surgical Anatomy teaching to undergraduate medical students.<br/><br/>Design and Setting Qualitative and quantitative study using questionnaires and focus groups, employing students of the perioperative and emergency medicine (POEM) module of the phase 4 undergraduate medical curriculum at Queen’s University Belfast.<br/><br/>Outcome Measures To determine:<br/>(1) if multidisciplinary teaching is effective in delivering surgical anatomy teaching,<br/>(2) student’s learning preferences regarding this teaching method.<br/>Results The questionnaire response rate was 89% (216 of 244 students; female: male ratio 1.25) and 42 students participated in 6 focus groups. Mean questionnaire responses indicated a favourable opinion on quality assurance items and multidisciplinary teaching. 81% of students agreed that multidisciplinary teaching enhanced learning and 86% felt that this did not adversely affect interaction. A positive contribution towards POEM learning was reported for Radiology (95% of students), Anatomy (93%) and Surgery (78%). The benefits of multidisciplinary teaching were congruent for Anatomy, Radiology and Surgery with 78% of students indicating a perceived favourable association with learning. Multidisciplinary teaching was not associated with diluted interaction, with 62% of students describing interaction as sufficient. 88% of students positively ranked tutor characteristics of enthusiasm and encouragement as being strongly associated with teacher quality. Positive perception of overall quality was strongly associated with learning preferences as well as more generic quality assurance issues (80% students; alpha coefficient 0.83). <br/>The results were supported by triangulation of the above quantitative data with qualitative data generated by the focus groups. Whilst students frequently misunderstood the meaning of “multidisciplinary teaching”, there was an appreciation of the method’s worth; students recognised and valued the relevance of Anatomy, Radiology and Surgery teaching to POEM learning. The importance of vertically integrating Anatomy into all stages of the undergraduate curriculum was especially recognised.<br/><br/>Reference Aarnio M, Nieminen J, Pyorala E, Lindbolm-Ylanne S. Motivating medical students to learn. 2010 Med Teach;32(4):199-204. <br/>