Evaluation of basic surgical skill workshop at undergraduate level in the discipline of surgery

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of basic surgical skill workshop at under graduate level. Methods: This was randomized controlled study (cross-over design) conducted at Al-Nafees Medical College and hospital from 1st January to November 30th 2017. Undergraduate medical students of Year-5 MBBS were randomized into two groups to undergo surgical skills training. One was workshop or interventional Group-A, other was traditional teaching or control Group-B. Online random sampling calculator was used for randomization. Both groups were given a pretest and post-test in the form of two OSATS station. Results: Total 49 students were enrolled in the study; Group-A had 25 whereas Group-B had 24 students. There was significant difference (p=0.000) in mean post-test scores of Group-A (36.28 +/- 6.75) and Group-B (24.17 +/- 5.09) out of 53 on OSATS station-1. Significant statistical difference (p=0.000) in the mean score of post-tests of Group-A (26.08 +/- 18.34) and Group-B (14.42 +/- 9.24) out of 37 was also noted on OSATS station-2. There was no significant difference in mean pretest scores on both stations in both groups. Conclusions: This study has suggestions in development of curriculum as it provides a quantitative substantiation indicating that workshop teaching as a learning strategy can essentially augment traditional teaching of technical skills to undergraduate medical students.