Use of online material in teaching general practice

Abstract

In the general practice course at Copenhagen University, students record videos of their consultations in general practice. At university, the videos are discussed with a teacher and peers. Simulated video consultations were produced to support learning. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of adding simulated consultation videos to standard teaching. Final semester students (N=587) were assigned by the university to six groups and received more online teaching material one step at a time. A questionnaire and a test video consultation measured the change in students’ ability to identify patient-centered elements in a consultation pre-and post-course. Effect sizes were calculated as the difference between the pre-and post-course measures divided by the mean-variance before the course. The overall teaching effect size (ES) was positive (0,67). A high average ES of 0.94 was found for the communication questions, which included most of the patient-centered elements. Introducing simulated video consultations did not increase awareness of patient-centered elements. However, an increase in clinical skills was demonstrated. Showing simulated video consultations from general practice increase the students awareness of clinical cases in general practice and can be supplement to the clinical teaching.