Adequacy of Orthopaedic Surgery Educational Teaching Methods amongst Medical Students in Enugu State.

Introduction: Orthopaedic surgery educational teaching methods for medical students vary across different tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

Aims: To determine the perception of medical students on the adequacy of orthopaedic surgery teaching methods in Enugu state, Nigeria.

Materials and methods: A cross-sectional online survey conducted using a well-structured questionnaire with the Google forms software and distributed to final year medical students at the two tertiary universities in Enugu state via online forums. SPSS was used for analysis. Significance set at P < 0.05.

Results: 106 final year medical students filled the form. Response rate was 65.1%. 85.8% of the respondents reported that every student gets posted for orthopaedic surgery while 53% agreed that graphical illustrations were used. 50% reported that the learning environment were serene whereas 94.3% reported that their lecturers are well-trained. However, 55.6% reported that they do not have surgery simulations. Furthermore, 15.09% reported that they are aware of pitfalls in the teaching methods where only 27.36% alluded to using the library. There was no statistically significant association between gender and perception on quality of trainers/teaching methods of orthopaedic surgery in Enugu state (P value < 0.112).

Conclusion/recommendation: The orthopaedic surgery teaching methods currently being used are not adequate. Efforts should be made to increase the quality of exposure of medical students to orthopaedic surgery and increase the use of graphical illustrations/simulations.