[The 6th Year of the Study of Human Medicine is Mainly Orientated to Practice: a Pilot Study with a Digital Logbook].

Abstract

Digital learning resources are in increasing demand, especially in the light of the planned reform of the medical licensing regulations for 2028. In a pilot project, we digitised and evaluated a logbook for students in their practical year (PJ).The aim of this study is to evaluate the digital and non-digital PJ logbooks.Based on a printed PJ logbook, a digital PJ logbook was developed as a web app. The implementation was performed using the commercial enterprise knowledge management system Confluence (Atlassian Corporation, Sydney, Australia), which allows responsive design, integration with the university's user directory, and incorporation of corporate design. Student satisfaction (n = 34) was assessed using questionnaires and a 5-level Likert scale. Additionally, students self-assessed their skills at the beginning and end of the rotation before (n = 49) and after (n = 34) the introduction of the digital logbook by grade points.The majority of students found the digital logbook to be an intuitive and a valuable addition. In the stationary setting, the introduction of the digital logbook led to a significant improvement in self-assessed skills by 0.73 grade points at the beginning (p < 0.001) and 0.78 grade points at the end of the rotation (p < 0.001). In the operating theatre, there was only a significant improvement of 0.47 grade points at the beginning of the rotation (p = 0.027).The evaluation demonstrates that the digital PJ logbook is well-received by students and significantly improves their self-assessed skills. The observed increase in self-assessed skills could be attributed to the introduction of the digital logbook and its contents, although other factors, such as the engagement of the instructors, cannot be excluded. Future modifications are planned to make the logbook more appealing.