Teaching webside manner: development and initial evaluation of a video consultation skills training module for undergraduate medical students

Abstract

Background Video consultations are increasingly used to communicate with patients, particularly during the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, training in video consultation skills receives scant attention in the literature. We sought to introduce this important topic to our undergraduate medical school curriculum. Objective To increase final year medical students’ video consultation skills and knowledge. Methods We used Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) quality improvement methodology with a pre-post study design to develop a teaching session for 5th year medical students, informed by a literature review and online clinician survey. The 2 hour session comprised an introduction and three practical stations: patient selection and ethics, technology and example videos, and simulation. Subjective pre- and post-session confidence was reported by students across seven domains using 5-point scales (1: not at all confident; 5: extremely confident). Students and facilitators completed post-session feedback forms. Results The 40 students and 3 facilitators who attended, over two separate teaching sessions, provided unanimously positive feedback. All students considered the session relevant. Subjective confidence ratings (n = 34) significantly increased from pre- to post-session (mean increase 1.78, p < 0.001). Conclusions The inaugural teaching session was well-received and subjective assessment measures showed improvement in taught skills. This pilot has informed a UK-wide multi-centre study with subjective and objective data collection.

Keywords

• remote consultation
• video consultation
• simulation
• covid-19
• medical education