Author/Authors :
Borges, Lawrence F Division of Gastroenterology - Mount Auburn Hospital and Harvard Medical School - Cambridge - MA, USA , Robertson, Jamie M Department of Surgery - Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School - Boston - MA, USA , Kappler, Steven M Cleveland Clinic Digestive Diseases Center - Port St. Lucie - FL, USA , Venkatan, Suresh K Learning Laboratory - Massachusetts General Hospital - Boston - MA, USA , Jin, David X Division of Gastroenterology - Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School - Boston - MA, USA , Shields, Helen M Division of Gastroenterology - Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School - Boston - MA, USA , Barnes, Edward L Division of Gastroenterology - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine - Chapel Hill - NC, USA , Jaffer, Farouc A Division of Cardiology - Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School - Boston - MA, USA , Dudzinski, David M Division of Cardiology - Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School - Boston - MA, USA , Schmidt, Ada C Stefanescu Division of Cardiology - Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School - Boston - MA, USA , Drachman, Douglas E Division of Cardiology - Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School - Boston - MA, USA , Saldana, Fidencio L Division of Cardiovascular Medicine - Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School - Boston - MA, USA , Young, Michael N Cardiology Division - Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Geisel School of Medicine - Lebanon - NH, USA , Hayden, Emily M Department of Emergency Medicine - Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School - Boston - MA, USA , Pelletier, Stephen R Office of Educational Quality Improvement - Harvard Medical School - Boston - MA, USA
Abstract :
Medical school simulations are often designed for a limited number of students to maximize engagement and learning. To ensure that all first-year medical students who wished to join had an opportunity to participate, we designed a novel method for larger groups.
Patients and Methods
We devised a low technology “Orchestra Leader’s” chart approach to prominently display students’ roles, chosen by lottery. During simulation, the chart was mounted on an intravenous pole and served as a group organizational tool. A course instructor prompted students using the chart to accomplish the course objectives in a logical order. Real-life cardiologists and gastroenterologists provided the students with expert subspecialty consultation. We analyzed 125 anonymous student evaluation ratings for 3 years (2017–2019) with a range of 8 to 19 students per laboratory session.
Results
Our 2017–2019 larger group sessions were all rated as excellent (1.26, Mean, SD ±.510) on the Likert scale where 1.0 is excellent and 5.0 is poor. There were no statistically significant differences in overall ratings among the 2017, 2018 and 2019 sessions. The subspecialists were uniformly rated as excellent. Verbatim free-text responses demonstrated resounding student appreciation for the role assignment by lottery method.
Conclusion
We designed a novel, “Orchestra Leader’s” chart approach for accommodating larger groups in a multidisciplinary simulation laboratory using role assignment by lottery, roles depicted on an organizational chart, and expert instructor prompting. Our consistently excellent ratings suggest that our methods are useful for achieving well-rated larger group simulation laboratories.
Keywords :
cardiology , gastroenterology , large group simulation , manikin , medical student
