Perception and attitude of medical students towards trauma and orthopedic teaching: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Musculoskeletal teaching is adversely related to discrepancy among the variety of clinical problems observed in practice and medical schools curricula. There is a strong need to optimize trauma and orthopedic (T&O) surgery education among undergraduate students through the use of different learning tools and strategies. This study aimed to identify how undergraduate medical students deal with available learning opportunities and to evaluate students’ interest in T&O surgery and their perception and attitude toward learning. Methodology: Fourth-year medical students were surveyed about their future career choice and their attitude toward trauma and orthopedic surgery teaching. The questionnaire was designed to assess student’s perception toward learning environments, knowledge, and work motivation. Results: A total of 100 responses were included for analysis. Among them, 70 (70%) of the participants were males. Among them40 (40%) students were interested to work in trauma and orthopedic surgery departments. It was found that teaching with the specialist registrar/senior house officer/foundation year+ was extremely beneficial among 54 (54%) of medical students. Interacting with patients in the clinic was found to be helpful among 70 (70%) of students. Similar percentages were observed for interest toward formal lectures and independent reading by 62 (62%) and 58 (58%) of students, respectively. In contrast, watching/assisting open surgery and watching/helping arthroscopic surgery were found to be of low educational value among 60 (60%) and 55 (55%) of students, respectively. Furthermore, watching/ assisting open surgery was found to be the most motivating factors in career interest toward trauma and orthopedic surgery (p-value = 0.01). Conclusion: Educational benefit of each learning environment differs among undergraduate students. Formal patient-based teaching under the supervision of physicians was the most valuable learning environment.