POSTER
Web-based Clinical Skills and Evidence-based Notes to Assist
First Year Medical Students with Physical Examination Skills: the ASCM I Approach.
Michael Colapinto, Joyce Nyhof-Young and John Bradley
Faculty of Medicine,
ABSTRACT:
Introduction
The Art & Science
of Clinical Medicine 1 (ASCM1) is a fundamental course taken by all 1st year
medical students at the
Over the past few
years, an award-winning ASCM website has been developed consisting of videos
demonstrating all of the pertinent skills to be learned in ASCM1. Although this
website is an excellent educational resource, several students have suggested
the need for a concise, written manual that they could use as a hard copy
supplement to the website. Both a hard copy and an online version of the manual
have been requested. This presentation illustrates how the strengths and
flexibility of both paper-based and electronic resources may be effectively
combined within one learning resource for students.
Methods
Clinical skills notes
were developed by a former ASCM student (i.e., a member of the target audience)
for the 14 clinical examinations that need to be mastered in ASCM1 ranging from
the ëExamination of the Abdomen to the ëExamination of the Thyroid Gland. All
attempts were made to write these notes at the level of an ASCM1 student and to
make them concise enough to digest quickly, yet complete enough to perform a
thorough and proper examination. The notes were written in point form and in a
consistent format under the following headings: Positioning & Draping, Inspection,
Percussion, Palpation, Auscultation, and Special Tests.
In order to clarify
concepts that often pose difficulty to ASCM1 students, 19 original
illustrations were created for the notes by students from the Division of
Biomedical Communications in the Department of Surgery at the University of
Toronto.
These notes have been
posted on the ASCM website and are also printed as a 50 page handbook provided
to each student for quick reference and use in the clinical setting.
Future
We plan to survey the
Class of 2007 at the conclusion of their 1st medical year (May 2004) regarding
the ASCM1 Clinical Skills Notes. The resulting data will be presented to show
how useful the students have found the electronic and paper-based Clinical
Skills Notes to be in the development of their burgeoning clinical skills.
BENEFIT TO PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING SESSION:
This presentation
describes the newly developed web-based clinical skills notes for 14 clinical
examinations that need to be mastered by first year medical students at the
University of Toronto. Features of the program will be demonstrated. We will
explain how the combination of hard copy and electronic versions of the notes
and their accompanying original illustrations are useful to medical students.
Implications for others developing similar on-line teaching and learning
resources will be discussed.
Joyce Nyhof-Young,
PhD
Princess Margaret
Hospital
610 University Avenue
5-312
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada M5G 2M9
Phone: 416-946-4501 X
5838
Fax: 416-946-4442
mailto:joyce.nyhof-young@uhn.on.ca
CO-AUTHORS:
John Bradley, MD
and
Michael Colapinto
C/o John Bradley, MD
Academy Director, The
Wightman-Berris Academy Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network 200
Elizabeth Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5G 2C4
Phone: John Bradley,
MD