Analysing the effectiveness of Just-A-Minute Optometry Clinical Pearls: a micro-learning tool in continuing optometry education

ABSTRACT

Clinical relevance

Just-A-Minute Clinical Pearls as a microlearning concept may be beneficial in enhancing optometry and ophthalmology practice globally.

Background

Medical education often witnesses a gap in effectively translating the learnings into clinical practice, pointing to the complex and traditional teaching methods as hindrances. The present work studied the usefulness and acceptability of Just-A-Minute Optometry Clinical Pearls, a micro-learning tool, among optometrists and ophthalmologists.

Methods

Just-A-Minute Optometry clinical pearls were developed by the optometry team of LV Prasad Eye Institute and shared (via email) among optometrists and ophthalmologists on a daily basis between June 2021 to May 2022. In the middle of the project, the recipients were invited to participate in an online survey. The variables studied included frequency of checking clinical pearls, simplicity of their content, grasping speed, most used subspeciality pearls, knowledge gain and retention, practice applicability, overall learning experience, and the likelihood of recommending it to a friend.

Results

Among 150 respondents, 103 (68.7%) were ophthalmologists, and 46 (30.7%) were optometrists. The majority were from private (n = 64, 42.7%) and institutional (n = 48, 32%) practices, with 102 (68.4%) having more than five years and 21 (14%) having 2–5 years of experience. About 115 (77%) respondents checked clinical pearls every day, 147 (99%) found the format easy, and 131 (88%) could grasp the content within one minute. They felt that JAM-OCP ‘always’ enhanced clinical knowledge (n = 108, 72%) and clinical applicability (n = 82, 55%) and helped in knowledge retention (n = 123, 84%). The responses to the clinical application significantly varied (Chi-square tests) among subgroups of education qualification (p < 0.001) and practice types (p < 0.03).

Conclusions

The Just-A-Minute Optometry Clinical Pearls were beneficial to optometrists and ophthalmologists in their practices. This, as a tele-education tool, supports continuing optometry education across the globe.

KEYWORDS:

• Clinical pearls
• continuing optometry education
• Just-A-Minute Clinical Pearls
• micro-learning
• tele-education

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Dr. Krishnaiah Sannapaneni for his statistical guidance, Dr. Bhavani S Kowtharapu, Dr. Srinivas Marmamula, Dr. Deepak K Bagga, Shailaja Reddy, Aarti Rawat for their feedback, and support. The authors wish to acknowledge all the team members of optometry and Education at LV Prasad Eye Institute for their support and contribution to the clinical pearls development and validation process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08164622.2023.2264844.