Advancing pre-clinical surgical education by using intuitive short videos.

Abstract

Background: The ever-expanding field of surgery requires novel tools to teach surgical pathologies and their management. Basic knowledge must already be acquired on a pre-graduate level at medical school. The SARS-CoV-19 pandemic has pushed students to explore digital online platforms to complement their medical education. This study aimed to assess the utility of short educational videos and the importance of digital learning methods to teach abdominal surgery.

Methods: A literature review was performed for a thorough understanding of educational videos. Short videos were then created covering different topics of abdominal surgery. To evaluate the utility of such videos, three consecutive cohorts of medical students were compared. The first cohort comprised students studying without the videos (V0), whereas the second and third cohorts had access to the videos (V1, V2). Between the three groups, the general demand for videos, subjective study habits, and objective examination scores were compared. In the V1 and V2 group, satisfaction and engagement regarding the videos were also assessed.

Results: This study included 746 medical students over a three-year period, with similar demographics. The demand for videos was high (90% in V0, 88% in V1 and V2 each) in all three groups. In total, 23 short videos were produced. Students recognized the benefits of videos in understanding the basics of surgical pathologies and their management. On average, 95.5% of the students found that videos were successful in summarizing the lectures' key points. Moreover, 96.5% found that the videos helped them to better recall the lecture content. A median overall improvement of 12.5% between V0 and V1 examination results was observed.

Conclusions: This study emphasizes the importance of implementing innovative teaching methods in modern medical education. Students expressed a strong demand for short educational videos. In the future, this project could expand to other surgical and non-surgical specialties.