B. L. Gas1, E. Buckarma1, M. Mohan1, T. Pandian1, N. Naik1, W. Thompson1, E. Abbott1, A. Jyot1, M. Zeb1, S. Allen1, D. R. Farley1 1Mayo Clinic,General Surgery,Rochester, MN, USA
Introduction: The objective of this study was to determine if medical students’ knowledge and technical performance of a FAST (Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma) exam could be enhanced by teaching high school students how to perform this exam.
Methods: Twenty-three 1st through 4th year medical students (MS) completed a pre-test comprised of two parts: (1) five question quiz (5 total points) and (2) FAST exam (25 total points) on a standardized patient. Following the pre-test, general surgical residents taught MS for 90 minutes using both lecture and hands-on simulation. The MS immediately completed a post-test (PT 1), which was identical to the pre-test. Four weeks later, 8 of the MS taught 120 high school students (HS) how to perform a FAST exam. The MS taught independently, with no oversight given. MS who did not teach HS received a video link which outlined the FAST exam diagnostic steps. Eight weeks after the pre-test, MS participants completed a second post-test (PT 2) which was identical to the pre-test. Scores between MS who taught HS and those who did not were compared.
Results: Fifteen MS completed the pre-test and both post-tests; of these, six taught HS and nine received the instructional videos. Overall, there was improvement from the pre-test to PT 1 both with the quiz (mean score improved from 2.3 to 4.9, p<.001) and FAST exam (mean score improved from 6.5 to 21.3, p<.001). However, both scores decreased from PT 1 to PT 2 (mean quiz score 4.9 to 4 and mean FAST score 21.3 to 12; p≤.001). MS who taught HS scored higher on the FAST exam technique portion of PT 2 compared to MS who received instructional videos (17.5 and 8.3, respectively; p=.01).
Conclusion: Allowing medical students to give hands-on teaching of medical information or the actual skill of a FAST exam to high school students improves MS long term retention compared with receipt of video-based instruction. Skill and knowledge decay did occur with both groups over 8 weeks of time. Hands on learning with sequential exposure remains a powerful educational format for long term retention.