421 Surgical Bedside Teaching at St Helier Hospital – a Quality Improvement Project

Abstract Aim To assess the impact of bedside sessions on medical students’ confidence in clinical assessment. It aims to assess strengths and weaknesses and guide further interventions. Method It employed a mixed-methods approach using both quantitative and qualitative measures in anonymised surveys. The intervention that was introduced was a ‘learning objective ticket’, whereby learning objectives were distributed and discussed prior to the session. Results There were 22 responses in the first cycle of the evaluation. Quantitative data revealed that the mean confidence in history taking was 3.55(+/- 0.59) before the session, and 4.32(+/-0.56) after the session (P0.001).There was also a significantly significant difference in mean confidence levels in examination skills (p0.001) with confidence going from 3.14(+/-0.56), to 4.45(+/-0.51). Qualitative data highlighted areas of improvement such as clearer learning objectives, greater alignment with assessments and better adherence to time constraints. There were 18 responses to the survey in the second cycle of this evaluation. Quantitative results showed that 88% of students ‘strongly agreed’ that the learning objectives were clear, 88% of students ’strongly agreed’ learning objectives were relevant, and 72.2% ‘strongly agreed’ that they had met their learning objectives. 12 out of 18 responders (66.7%) ‘strongly agreed’ that the timings of the session were adhered to. Conclusions Overall bedside teaching sessions are a valuable tool in undergraduate surgical education. Their impact can be further advanced by linking with learning objective as per constructivist alignment theory. Applying closer alignment with formal assessment could further improve these sessions.