Abstract
BackgroundPain is a devastating sensation and has to be treated immediately. Therefore, we developed a training program to improve the knowledge of medical students in the field of pain medicine. In the present study, the applicability and efficacy of this training program was tested.MethodsHalf of the students attended first a training with simulated patients (SP) followed by bedside teaching (Group 1). Group 2 performed the training programs in reverse order. The evaluation based on standardized questionnaires completed by students (self-assessment) and all students took part in two practical examinations after the learning interventions.ResultsThis study included 35 students. The quality of the simulation was evaluated by the students with average grade 1.1 (1 = very good, 6 = very bad). The practical work on the ward with patients was rated with grade 1.4 of 6, the whole course with 1.1. Students of Group A were significantly better in the final examination (grade 1.7 vs. grade 2.2, p < 0.05). To rate the improvement of skills (self-assessment) we used a Likert Scale (1 = very certain, 5 = very uncertain). The following skills were similar in both groups and significantly better after the course: taking responsibility, expert knowledge, empathy, relationship building and communication.ConclusionsTraining with simulated patients in combination with small-group teaching at the bedside with real patients achieves a dramatic increase in student competence. Students prefer learning from the simulation before bedside teaching and propose to include simulation into the curricular teaching of pain medicine.
Highlights
Pain is a devastating sensation and has to be treated immediately
Group A received the simulation training first followed by bedside teaching, whereas Group B experienced bedsideteaching first followed by simulation training afterwards (Fig. 1)
In total 35 students participated in the study
Summary
We developed a training program to improve the knowledge of medical students in the field of pain medicine. It is very important to train medical students to diagnose and treat patients with acute and chronic pain properly. To meet this challenge in Germany the cross-sectional field “Pain Medicine” was implemented in the curricular teaching of medical students. A lack of communication skills results in inadequate, improperly treatment of patient with acute or chronic pain, training in this regard is important [5,6,7]. It is meaningful and necessary to intensify the efforts to teach medical students especially in the practical aspects of pain medicine using specific practical training sessions [8,9,10,11,12]
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