Prevalence, Effectiveness, and Usefulness of Using YouTube among Medical Students in Clinical Years/Physical Examination

Introduction: A recent study aimed to investigate the usefulness of YouTube as an educational resource for medical students studying physical examination in Jordanian Universities. The questionnaire aimed to determine the prevalence, effectiveness, and usefulness of YouTube in learning physical examination and to identify which medical topics were studied more through YouTube. Methods: The study used a Google Forms questionnaire to survey 413 medical students in their 4 th , 5 th , and 6 th clinical years. Results: The study found that the majority (91%) of the students used YouTube as a learning tool, and most (96.4%) found it useful in their studies. Nearly all students (93.7%) reported learning additional information they did not previously have access to. Most students (88.4%) used YouTube to learn physical examination, and a vast majority (90.1%) found it useful for practicing before the Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs). Almost 80% of the students who used YouTube received higher marks in OSCEs. Furthermore, the study also found that YouTube usage varied among students, with the majority using it in their 4 th year. The two medical topics that students found most useful in YouTube videos were internal medicine and general surgery, with 82.8% and 69.5% of students finding them useful, respectively. Conclusion: This investigation demonstrates the essential role of YouTube as a valuable learning tool among clinical-year medical students in Jordan. The platform’s accessibility, variety of content, and ability to provide detailed visual demonstrations make it an important resource for enhancing medical education.