BACKGROUND: Emergency trauma care (ETC) in the "golden hour" can reduce the fatality rates by 20% - 50%. Imparting ETC training in undergraduate Indian medical graduate (IMG) curriculum can prepare them for both pre-hospital and hospital set-up management as a first responder, thus saving lives. However, teaching these lifesaving skills for managing acute trauma patient like spinal injury in competency based medical education (CBME) curriculum, is challenging. These skills can be taught on standardized patient, allowing the learner, to safely learn the skills on a living responding human being, thus achieving a higher level of clinical competency and better communication skills. However, their availability is limited. In such a scenario, video demonstration of such skills is an easy and reliable teaching learning method. OBJECTIVE: The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of using standardized patient versus video demonstration for teaching psycho-motor skills in the management of spinal injury to under graduate students. METHODS: A prospective interventional comparative study was carried out in the Orthopaedics department of a teaching hospital from September 2024 to February 2025, with Institutional Ethics Committee approval. Thirty undergraduate students posted in Orthopaedics, were divided into two groups (15 each) based on their even and odd roll numbers (systematic sampling). One group was shown video demonstration (VD) of skills like application of an improvised cervical collar and log rolling maneuver in the management of spinal injury patient in primary setting and other group was taught on a standardized patient (SP). The students were assessed by objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) and maneuvers were performed by them on mannequins. Pre-test and Post Test evaluation with peer validated questionnaire along with student's feedback was taken. The data was analyzed by unpaired t test for OSCE scores and paired t test for pre and post test scores with statistical significance set at p < 0.05 (Confidence interval 95%). Student feedback questionnaire based on 5-point Likert scale was evaluated. RESULTS: There was significant difference in the mean OSCE scores obtained by VD group 15.47 and by SP group is 18.27 (p value 0.004). However, in comparing the OSCE scores obtained in individual skill demonstration stations for log rolling maneuver and cervical spine immobilization (a pure psycho-motor skill), the mean scores of VD group were 2.27 and 3.20 and SP group was 2.33 and 3.27 respectively. This difference was not significant (p value 0.74 and 0.79 respectively). The student feedback showed teaching with standardized patient, was marginally more interesting and effective method, giving them more confidence to apply these skills in primary setting if needed. CONCLUSIONS: The study shows both methods are equally effective for teaching lifesaving psycho-motor skills in the management of spinal injury. However, SP group students had better student engagement . Hence a blended approach , where a video demonstration is used to teach large groups or can be given to students prior to the sessions, followed by teaching or assessing on standardized patient for application of these skills will lead to optimum results and save time.
Gayan et al. (Sat,) studied this question.