Evaluation of surgical skills with a hybrid simulator to close a superficial wound

Abstract

Introduction: Simulation in medical education is an area of increasing opportunity; It has been demonstrated that its use as a tool to train and evaluate medical-surgical skills has been a good option to supplement the limited tutorial system, since it shortens the time of learning time and allowing training as many times as necessary in a safe and engaging environment for the student.

Objective: To demonstrate if there is a statistically significant difference when using a hybrid simulator versus traditional model as a teaching strategy in the evaluation of surgical skills.

Method: Experimental study. Participated 60 undergraduate students of the Faculty of Medicine of the UNAM before starting their medical internship. The closure of a superficial wound was evaluated in a hybrid simulator, with a checklist.

Results: A cross-sectional study comparing two groups with a random variable, alpha level = 5% = .05. During the pilot study, we evaluated 34 items for the skill “Repair of a superficial wound”. They were grouped into 4 medical competencies: A. Critical thinking, clinical judgment, decision making and information management B. Domain and application of the clinic C. Effective communication D. Ethics and professionalism in medical practice. A significant difference was found during the final evaluation in groups B and C when using the hybrid simulator compared to traditional methods. No significant difference was found in the final evaluation in the A and D competencies.

Conclusions: There is a significant difference in the acquisition of surgical skills using a hybrid simulator compared to a traditional teaching model in the domain and application of clinical and effective human communication.