Investigating the impact of multimodal training on surgical informed consent in final year medical students: A quasi-experimental study

Abstract

Background & Objective: In clinical practice, obtaining informed surgical consent is rooted in respecting a person's dignity, and failure to obtain informed consent has been labeled as medical negligence. Teaching this process to undergraduates can improve doctor[ –patient relationships, thereby decreasing medico U -legal litigation. This study investigated whether a multimodal training module for teaching final-year medical students surgical informed consent was effective in improving this skill. It aimed to determine the students' perception of multimodal training in taking informed consent for surgical procedures. Material & Methods: This single-group quasi-experimental study was conducted in the authors' teaching hospital in Kerala, India, among 35 final-year medical students from January to July 2022. It evaluated their ability to obtain surgical informed consent and the improvement following an educational intervention based on a multimodal training module using a prevalidated Directly Observed Procedural Skills assessment. Results: Following the intervention, students showed an improvement in their ability to take surgical informed consent and in assessment scores, which was found to be statistically significant (p < 0.001). Male students showed a greater improvement in the Knowledge subcomponent of assessment score as compared to females, which was statistically significant (p < 0.001). All the students, in their feedback, felt the training was feasible, made learning interesting, helped identify weaker sections, and retained concepts in memory. They opined that it made them confident in taking consent and that they would prefer this type of learning in the future. Conclusion: Multimodal modular training enhanced the proficiency of final-year medical students in obtaining informed surgical consent from simulated patients. This enriched their professionalism and interaction with simulated patients. Utilizing faculty as simulated patients needs further exploration. We recommend that the undergraduate medical curriculum incorporate a prevalidated multimodal training module and assessment tool for surgical informed consent.

Keywords

• communication skills
• directly observed procedural skills
• multimodal training module