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Teaching and Assessing Microscopy Skills in Medical Students

Objectives: Otolaryngology residents learn important skills as medical students, but typically not binocular microscopy. This study aims to 1) evaluate instructional methods teaching medical students binocular microscopy, 2) assess student ability to perform simulated clinical tasks, and 3) measure student feedback on this training. Methods: Fifteen students were randomized into one of three training arms: 1) video instruction, 2) personal demonstration, and 3) combination of video and personal instruction. Time to complete two tasks was used to determine training effectiveness. Task 1: focus on an object in a cup; Task 2: focus and use alligator forceps to remove the object from the cup. For each subject, three trials were done for each task at three magnifications. Participants filled out pre- and post-study questionnaires. Results: Groups were compared using one-tail t-tests. For Task 1, there was no significant difference between educational methods. For Task 2, those who received any video instruction were significantly faster at focusing than those who only received personal instruction (10.35s and 11.19s vs. 14.80s; P < 0.01 and P = 0.02). Those who had video and personal instruction were faster at the manual task than those receiving only personal instruction (17.58s vs. 23.02s; P = 0.04). Post-training questionnaires showed greater interest in surgical specialties, particularly otolaryngology. Conclusions: Video instruction plus personal instruction enhances learning clinical microscopy. This may be extrapolated to other skills students and residents must learn. This training is perceived as positive by students and may be important in teaching, as well as in the residency selection process.