Analysis of Medical Students’ Ability in Evaluating Genital Prolapse

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the ability to analyze pelvic organ prolapse of the undergraduate students and to infer the inter-examiner agreement (students and preceptor) on POP-Q ICS classification. Methods: A prospective, randomized observational study that evaluated urogynecology learning by fifth-year students of medicine of Escola Paulista de Medicina/UNIFESP, Brazil using a questionnaire based on the Likert scale before and after Hospital São Paulo Gynecology Sector stage. We also compared the pelvic organ prolapse staging with POP-Q between students and the preceptor after the internship in gynecology. Results: A total of 85 students and 5 preceptors were included. 94% of the students reported feeling totally uncomfortable or uncomfortable assessing patients with genital dystopia prior to the internship in gynecology, and 42% remained totally uncomfortable or uncomfortable after the stage. Concerning the inter-examiner agreement, it was verified that the students and preceptors presented greater concordance in the stages 0 and 4, but the stages 1, 2, and 3 are presented as points of less agreement. About the general agreement between students and preceptors, we observed that there is regular agreement Kappa 0.206 with p-value <0.001 for 95% confidence interval. Conclusion: We can conclude that the students are able to perform an evaluation using POP-Q prolapse system however, it is necessary to improve their accuracy. Only a small portion of the students were fully comfortable in this care, the number of women with dystopia effectively attended seems to influence the comfort of students to attend patients.