559 Hybrid Anatomy Teaching Sessions: A New Normal?

Abstract

Abstract Aim To evaluate the synchronous provision of hybrid teaching for a near-peer surgical anatomy teaching programme. Method A monthly hybrid anatomy teaching programme was delivered with an attendee choice of either online via Zoom or in-person in a lecture theatre. The teaching, delivered by clinical medical students, covered core regional anatomy with clinical surgical relevance. Attendees provided anonymous feedback via a post-session questionnaire which contained five likert-scale questions and one open-ended question to explore the attendees’ preference and reasoning for their attendance choice. The data was analysed using Microsoft Excel. Results A total of 45 participants attended in-person and 90 participants online across four teaching sessions. Majority of the participants were pre-clinical medical students. Likert scale analysis showed that ∼88% of participants found the session content helpful in addition to an increase in subject confidence by ∼25% across all sessions. Thematic analysis demonstrates in-person sessions as being more sociable, interactive with the ease to ask questions and pay attention, plus appreciation of provided refreshments. Online sessions are shown to be more convenient and practically accessible to students. The strongest theme highlighted was the ability to choose whether to attend in-person or online. Conclusions A mixed-model approach to surgical anatomy teaching serves to be beneficial to students. While both in-person and online teaching have their merits, the ability to choose between the two serves as the strongest factor among students in attending teaching. Future teaching sessions should be conducted with a mixed-model approach with added in-person incentives for students.