Does academic degree influence theoretical knowledge in eye fundus examination?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate theoretical knowledge of medical students, medical residents and general medicine specialists in fundus examination. Methods: This cross-sectional study included three groups: third year medical students, interne medicine residents and general medicine specialists. The selection was based on the expected proficiency for each of the groups. Participants were invited by email. Two questionnaires previously translated and validated to Portuguese were applied: one to evaluate self-confidence with fundus examination with a 5-item Likert scale and a second to evaluate the theoretical knowledge composed of 60-itens. Only fulfilled questionnaires were included in the analysis. Results: Fifty third year medical students, 9 interne medicine residents and 19 general medicine specialists were included. The mean score of third year medical students, interne medicine residents and general medicine specialists was 36.7 ± 7.07, 43.56 ± 5.03 and 38.68 ± 5.83 (p = 0.02). Pairwise comparison between the groups showed statistical difference when compared the scores of third year medical students and interne medicine residents (p = 0.01), but there was no statistical significance when compared third year medical students to general medicine specialists (p = 0.5) and interne medicine residents to general medicine specialists (p = 0.17). The number of participants that score above the pass-fail cutoff of 46 was 6 (12%), 4 (44.4%) and 2 (10.5%) among third year medical student, interne medicine residents and general medicine specialists, respectively. Conclusion: Academic degree does not influence the theoretical knowledge in fundus examination.

Keywords

• Educational status
• Fundus oculi
• Models
• theoretical
• Students, medical
• Surveys and questionnaires