Evaluation of the development of emergency response skills of intern doctors after emergency medicine internship: A prospective cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Although there are many forms of education, learning by doing is one of the most efficient ways of learning in the field of medicine. In Turkey, intern doctors can perform and observe many emergency interventions in the presence of supervisors during their emergency service internship. This study aimed to examine whether intern doctors have developed the necessary emergency response skills concerning some vital situations after emergency medicine internship involving their applied training and observation. Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study was conducted between June 2, 2022, and September 1, 2022, in the emergency department of a tertiary hospital. In the study, the emergency response skills of intern doctors were measured with a questionnaire prepared using scenarios in which emergency situations were described. Results: The participants’ emergency response skills were improved in the most of emergencies described in the questionnaire. However, there was no significant improvement in emergency intervention skills related to the approach to ventricular tachycardia and multi-trauma patients (P=0.771 and P=0.45, respectively). Conclusion: Doctors doing internship in the emergency medicine clinic receive both theoretical and applied training, which increase their ability to respond to emergency situations. However, there is a need to identify emergency situations in which internship training does not sufficiently improve intervention skills and try new methods to improve the related skills.