Application of online case-based learning in the teaching of clinical anesthesia for residents during the COVID-19 epidemic

Yi Duan,Zuozhi Li,Xiaoyu Wang,Zhifeng Gao,Huan Zhang

doi:10.1186/s12909-021-03047-2

Abstract

ObjectiveCOVID-19 prevention and control demand a reduction in crowd gathering, which has a significant impact on traditional teaching and offline case-based learning (CBL). In order to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on clinical teaching, we aimed to compare the effects of an online CBL with traditional teaching model on learning outcomes of anesthesia residents.MethodsResidents rotated in the Department of Anesthesiology in Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital from January 2020 to February 2021 were included in Group W (n = 19), which implemented the W-CBL teaching model. The performance of residents was evaluated with theory test and 2 survey questionnaires (A and B) were conducted after 1 month of rotating. All 20 residents rotating in the Department of Anesthesiology at our hospital from January 2018 to December 2019 were included in Group C, which implemented the traditional teaching model. Their examination results were acquired through the teaching files and survey questionnaire (A) were administered through WeChat.ResultsDuring the 1-month rotation, a total of 10 cases were discussed in Group W. The average score for theory test was higher in Group W than that in Group C (84.57 ± 4.87 vs. 79.35 ± 3.70, P = 0.001). The satisfaction rate was also in favor of Group W regarding to clinical thinking, communication skills, learning interest and self-learning ability (P < 0.05).ConclusionsOnline CBL based on WeChat platform is an effective and acceptable teaching strategy in comparison to lecture-based learning (LBL) among residents embarking on clinical anesthesia courses.

Highlights

Since February 2020, in response to the requirement of “reducing non-essential gatherings” for the prevention and control of the COVID19 outbreak, offline lectures and skill training sessions for residents have been cut down on a large scale in mainland China [1]
Studies focusing on the use of WeChat combined with Case-Based Learning (CBL) (W-CBL) in anesthesia teaching remains scarce
This study aims to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of an online CBL based on a WeChat platform for resident teaching of clinical anesthesia

Summary

Introduction

Since February 2020, in response to the requirement of “reducing non-essential gatherings” for the prevention and control of the COVID19 outbreak, offline lectures and skill training sessions for residents have been cut down on a large scale in mainland China [1]. Traditional anesthesia teaching is based on offline lecture-based learning (LBL), which has limitations in terms of learning drive, independent learning ability and critical thinking exercise [3,4,5]. Case-Based Learning (CBL) takes clinical cases as a background and encourages residents to think actively as medical. Studies have shown that CBL promotes knowledge assimilation, strengthens critical thinking training, and helps enhance residents’ professional competency [6, 7]. The high aggregation requirements of traditional CBL for trainees make it difficult to implement and promote in clinical teaching, especially in the regular epidemic prevention and control phase. To tackle these problems, we tried to bring the traditional CBL online. We believe that with the help of the internet and mobile devices, it is possible to break through the physical and temporal constraints of clinical teaching

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion