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Spaced education improves the retention of clinical knowledge by medical students: a randomised controlled trial
Author(s) -
Kerfoot B Price,
DeWolf William C,
Masser Barbara A,
Church Paul A,
Federman Daniel D
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2929.2006.02644.x
Subject(s) - curriculum , medicine , test (biology) , cronbach's alpha , urology , educational measurement , medical education , randomized controlled trial , clinical trial , multiple choice , clinical endpoint , psychology , pedagogy , psychometrics , clinical psychology , paleontology , significant difference , biology
Purpose Medical knowledge learned by trainees is often quickly forgotten. How can the educational process be tailored to shift learning into longer‐term memory? We investigated whether ‘spaced education’, consisting of weekly e‐mailed case scenarios and clinical questions, could improve the retention of students' learning. Methods During the 2004–5 surgery clerkships, 3rd‐year students completed a mandatory 1‐week clinical rotation in urology and validated web‐based teaching programme on 4 core urology topics. Spaced educational e‐mails were constructed on all 4 topics based on a validated urology curriculum. Each consisted of a short clinically relevant question or clinical case scenario in multiple‐choice question format, followed by the answer, teaching point summary and explanations of the answers. Students were randomised to receive weekly e‐mailed case scenarios in only 2 of the 4 urology topics upon completion of their urology rotation. Students completed a validated 28‐item test (Cronbach's α = 0.76) on all 4 topics prior to and after the rotation and at the end of the academic year. Results A total of 95 of 133 students (71%) completed the end‐of‐year test. There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics between randomised cohorts. Spaced education significantly improved composite end‐of‐year test scores ( P < 0.001, paired t ‐test). The impact of the spaced educational e‐mails was largest for those students who completed their urology education 6–8 and 9–11 months previously (Cohen's effect sizes of 1.01 and 0.73, respectively). Conclusion Spaced education consisting of clinical scenarios and questions distributed weekly via e‐mail can significantly improve students' retention of medical knowledge.