The use of videotapes in improving clinical performance in the final MB examination

Abstract

The approach of the final MB examination provides students with a strong motivation to improve their clinical methods. It is not always possible to exploit this motivation in clinical teaching because there are rarely enough clinical teachers available. Videotapes of clinical methods can be used to provide uniform and structured teaching to students during this period. In this study we evaluated the use by students of 22 tapes on clinical examination, and the students' own perception of their performance in the clinical part of the final examination. Questionnaires were sent to all 145 students at Cardiff who took the final MB in the Summer of 1985. Of the 108 students (74%) who returned a completed questionnaire, 74 (69%) had seen from 1 to 20 videotapes on clinical examination. In answer to the question of whether the viewing of these tapes before the examination improved their clinical performance in approaching the 'short' clinical problems and demonstrating clinical signs, 35 students (47%) said that they were better prepared to respond to examiners' requests, 24 (32%) thought they were better prepared to greet and approach patients, 56 (76%) admitted to having learned new clinical skills, 61 (82%) stated that they were better prepared to demonstrate clinical signs to the examiners, and 46 students (62%) felt that the tapes had helped them to progress smoothly and rapidly through a sequence of examination steps. Only 15 students (20%) thought that the tapes helped them to summarize their findings and 15% thought that the tapes helped them to answer examiners' questions. The majority of viewers considered videotapes to be an excellent adjunct to self-learning in preparation for the final examination, and wanted more videotaped examples of abnormal signs. The results suggest that videotapes are a useful supplement to learning during the period before the final examination when students are very keen to learn.