J. A. Taylor1, L. Spiguel1, A. Iqbal1 1University Of Florida,Department Of Surgery,Gainesville, FL, USA
Introduction: The availability of material on the Internet influences how and what surgical residents use to study for assigned work, patient care, and for the annual in-service exam. At the authors’ institution, the weekly teaching conference for the surgical interns incorporates online material, including that from the Surgical Council on Resident Education (SCORE) website, into the interns’ online curriculum. We sought to investigate and define interns’ use of study material in various mediums, with the intent of using the results to assist in future curriculum development.
Methods: An IRB-approved survey inquiring about study material usage was administered to the interns at the end of the 2015 academic year. It had been validated through a modified Delphi technique. Participation was voluntary. Responses were de-identified prior to author analysis. Descriptive statistics were performed on demographic data. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney analyses were performed on Likert responses (α =0.05).
Results: There was a 91.7% response rate (n=11). 45.4% were female. 54.5% were categorical interns. No interns responded that they “always” used a textbook a study. Similarly, no interns responded that they “usually” or “always” accessed the free surgical ebooks available through the university library. 9% used the Internet “always” to study; in total, 90.9% used SCORE (p<0.05). Peer-reviewed journals and personal notes from sources such as clinic teaching were nearly universally not used for routine study material. 72.7% of interns were “somewhat satisfied” with the current study materials they used (p<0.05). A majority of interns were either “somewhat satisfied” or “completely satisfied” with the assigned weekly curriculum material they accessed. Regarding what would prompt them to use the online intern curriculum website more, 45.5% responded that they would use links to specific chapters in ebooks, if these were posted on the site. 36.4% wanted ability to download slides and handouts used by the faculty during the weekly conferences. 54.5% requested links to short video clips of operations.
Conclusion: Although limited in group size, this survey study gave valuable insight regarding resources used, particularly as it related to material curated by surgery faculty for the interns. The trend of the responses towards Internet use, specifically those with multimedia content, perhaps speaks to generational preferences, but also highlights the importance of knowing the learner audience. The long term goal is to generate and continuously update an online curriculum that will improve comprehension of surgical issues, improve exam results, create an efficient learning environment, and stimulate greater intern satisfaction.