Dermatology Procedural and Surgical Skills Workshop for Medical and Physician Assistant Students

Background: Evidence indicating the limited amount of hands-on experience in the current era of medical training has raised concern regarding students’ development and potential deficiencies in the performance of basic procedural skills. Studies have demonstrated the value of surgical workshops for medical students;however evaluation of improved student performance during future clerkships or residencies has yet to be assessed. We initiated and evaluated a resident-led surgical skills workshop for students through the Department of Dermatology. Methods: Participants received instructions on surgical tools/techniques followed by hands-on practice. Anonymous surveys administered to 24 medical and physician assistant students assessed their skill level, confidence level, and likelihood of using surgical skills in future practice preand post-workshop using a 1 - 5 Likert scale. Overall experience was also assessed. Non-parametric bivariate tests were used for analysis to account for non-normal distribution of the data. Results: There was a statistically significant change in skill (p = 0.0001) and confidence (p = 0.0001) level post workshop. There was no significant difference in utility. There were also no statistically significant differences based on the year of medical student training, medical student versus physician assistant student responses, or number of procedures performed prior to the workshop. Estimated cost per participant was $5.65. Conclusions: Research supports our finding that workshop learning experiences increase students’ ability to perform common procedural skills, their confidence, and desire to practice such skills. Further studies are necessary to determine the impact of these skills workshops on long-term clinical performance in future clerkships and residencies.

Dermatology Resident Generated Textbook Questions as a Resident-Centered Educational Strategy

Background: Textbook conferences are widely used by dermatology residency programs in the United States to provide educational exposure to the specialty. Typically an entire textbook is reviewed each academic year. However, residents may be uncertain about mastery of the assigned readings. Since most dermatology textbooks do not provide questions about the material presented at the end of each chapter, an innovative senior resident from our program wrote questions about each chapter and offered them to the other residents prior to scheduled discussions of the assigned materials. Methods: A pilot study for resident generated quizzes about assigned textbook reading in general dermatology was developed, implemented, and assessed by anonymous completion of a Likert Scale by participants. Results: Participants indicated that quizzes better prepared them for the annual dermatology in-service examination and they thought that the additional creation of quiz materials in the subspecialty areas of dermatopathology and dermatologic surgery would be useful. Conclusion: Resident generated quizzes are a novel approach to the learning environment during dermatology residency for residency programs and may be useful for other residency programs that utilize textbook conferences. Additional research is needed.