Low-Fidelity Haptic Simulation Increases the Transfer of Peripheral Blood Sampling Skills in Novice Medical Students

Abstract

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Background: The transfer of skills into clinical practice is a major issue in medical education. This study compared the transfer of skills related to peripheral blood collection between naïve medical students simulation-trained or not before performing on real patients. Methods: 30 novice medical students attended to a lecture addressing peripheral blood collection for laboratory tests. The intervention group trained procedural skills with low-fidelity haptic simulation and role-playing. Controls simulated basic life support. Each student performed six blood sampling attempts in real patients in another occasion. Performance was rated on a scoring checklist. Self-efficacy was measured after the lecture, immediately before and after blood sampling procedures. Results: Success rates were significantly higher in the intervention 82% than in the control group (68%; p = 0.037). Significantly lesser technical errors were observed in the intervention group. Self-efficacy scores increased significantly in both groups after blood collection procedures and correlated significantly with individual success rates (rho = 0.50). Conclusion: An educational intervention consisting of low-fidelity simulation and role-playing added to a lecture-based teaching session on peripheral blood sampling was associated with increased transfer of procedural skills. Self-efficacy was positively associated with individual success rates.