Open AccessImpact of a month-long training program on the clinical skills of ophthalmology residents and practitioners
Author(s) -
Sushma Tejwani,
Somasheila I Murthy,
Chandra Sekhar Gadudadri,
Ravi Thomas,
Praveen K Nirmalan
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
indian journal of ophthalmology/indian journal of ophthalmology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.542
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1998-3689
pISSN - 0301-4738
DOI - 10.4103/0301-4738.64141
Subject(s) - medicine , confidence interval , eye care , training (meteorology) , cohort , ophthalmology , family medicine , optometry , physics , meteorology
A cohort study was performed to assess the impact of an intensive, hands-on, supervised training program in ophthalmic clinical evaluation, for ophthalmology residents and private practitioners. All students underwent one-month training in comprehensive ophthalmology examination and investigations at a tertiary care center between January 2004 and January 2006. The training methodology included didactic lectures, video-demonstrations and hands-on training. The participants completed a self-assessment with a set of 23 questions designed to assess the level of confidence in various skills on the first and last day of the training. Of a total of 118 students, 67 (56.8%) were residents and 51 (43.2%) were practitioners. The mean score pre-training was 38.3 out of 92 (S.D. +/-16.9), and was 70.6 out of 92 (S.D.+/- 10.1) post-training. The mean increase in the scores was 32.3 (P value < 0.001). We concluded that intensive, short-term training programs could improve the self-perceived level of confidence of ophthalmology residents and practitioners.