To assess clinical skills of interns in selected procedures using direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS)

The study was interventional and conducted between December 2015 and February 2016 at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Sree Narayana Institute of Medical Sciences, Ernakulam, Kerala, India. In the study, investigator observed the trainee performing a practical procedure within the workplace and recorded a rating for each competency on the assessment form. Feedback was given expanding on the reasons for any ratings of development required and makes practical suggestions for any remedial steps. The intern is reassessed for the same procedure at a later stage and the impact on skills is scored. Then the structured feedback is provided, and later on again the score on skills obtained by DOPS are compared between pre- and post-values by Wilcoxon-signed rank test.

The average of pre- and post-feedback values were compared by Wilcoxon signed rank test. The p-value calculated was <0.001, which is significant. None of the interns were competent to perform the procedure before feedback; 80% of them needed more practice and 20% needed supervision. After feedback, 53.3% achieved competency and 46.7% achieved competency needing supervision; 93.3% of interns regarded feedback as superior quality, while 6.7% regarded as satisfactory.

Direct observation of procedural skills can be used to assess clinical skills of interns in selected procedures and it brings changes in procedural skills among students who received a structured feedback on DOPS.

Eralil GJ. Role of Structured Feedback of Direct Observation of Procedural Skills in improving Clinical Skill of Interns. J Postgrad Med Edu Res 2017;51(1):22-27.