Teaching Medical Students How to Suture: Standard Simulation vs in Situ

The purpose of this project is to compare in situ simulation with standard lab simulation. To do this, 30 pre-clinical medical students will be randomized into the lab or ER and taught how to suture a simple laceration. To do this, a synthesized 'skin' will be placed over a volunteer's arm and will have an incision of a predetermined length.

For this study, 30 first and second year students will be equally randomized to either a standard simulation lab or the ER department to learn the skill of suturing. These students will not have any knowledge of suturing prior to this study. Each group will have 15 students. Each student will be given access to the same suturing learning video. They will each attempt 15 sutures on a lab generated skin placed over a volunteer's arm. Each incision length will be predetermined and of the same length. The student will have the opportunity to re-watch the video in between each suture attempt. The volunteer will record the student's number of attempts and whether or not they had to review the video. The idea behind this, is that students should began to plateau with their learning after about 8-9 attempts and most will no longer require the video beyond that.After the 15 attempts, the student will immediately practice 6 sutures on a second skin over the volunteer's arm, again of a predetermined incision length. At this point the students will only be allowed to practice the suturing skill and will not have access to the learning video. At this point, the student's hands will be video recorded to assess the accuracy of the skill.One week after the learning session, regardless of the environment they initially learned in, the student will be brought to the ER and again allowed to practice 6 sutures on a simulated skin placed over a volunteer's arm. The incision will be the same length as the incision in the previous practice session. Again, the student's hands will be video recorded while practicing the 6 sutures.Afterward, the student will be given a questionnaire regarding which environment they practiced in and how prepared they felt to practice in the insitu environment without learning aids.

Research assistant will be present when student randomly chooses which environment they will learn how to suture in. The principal investigator will be unaware of this randomization.

Intervention is the environment in which the medical student will learn to practice how to suture. The end goal is to determine the impact each environment has on their ability to learn the skill.

Each student will complete a post survey questionnaire after their attempt to suture in the ER department. This will help determine the impact and therefore, which environment was more conducive to learning how to suture.

Inclusion Criteria: Pre clinical medical students (year one or two) Exclusion Criteria: Medical students not in first or second year training Extensive knowledge or background with suturing

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