Abstract Manager

Dedicated Poster

LP16 - 04

Accept

I declare I have no actual or potential conflict of interest in relation to this program.

This study employs a cross-sectional survey design to evaluate the clinical utility of respiratory clinical examination skills in practice.

no

General Call (Workshop, Oral Presentation, Poster Presentation)

Poster

Education Research

Student

Bridging the gap in clinical skills: A pilot study investigating the use of respiratory clinical examination skills in practice.

There is a paucity of literature that explores whether students use the clinical skills learned during medical school in practice. This study aims to fill this gap, as a greater understanding of clinically relevant examination skills may better focus studying, increase clinical competence, and ease student anxiety.

We disseminated a 10-minute online anonymized survey to residents and physicians using an open recruitment strategy with convenience and snowball sampling. This survey sought to determine the practical use of respiratory examination skills in the McMaster Clinical Skills guide. We conducted basic quantitative analysis and descriptive content analysis to evaluate results.

From a total of 161 respondents, 148 completed the entire survey. The majority of respondents found all 12 inspection skills to be useful in practice. Tracheal deviation was the only palpation skill found useful (68.63%). No percussion or auscultation skills were seen as useful by a majority, except for auscultating for breath sounds (100% useful). In qualitative analysis, the major theme was that skills should be taught despite minimal use as they help teach disease pathophysiology, help in limited resource settings, and have usefulness in particular situations (e.g., traumas or different specialties).

There is a discrepancy between the clinical skills taught to students and the ones actually used in practice. Despite this, there is still utility in teaching these skills to medical students. Rather than removing skills from the curriculum, a better avenue would be to emphasize maneuvers that are clinically important to help guide preparation for clinical settings.

Medical Education

Clinical Skills

Curriculum

Undergraduate

Teaching and learning

Undergraduate

Assessment

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes