Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Introduction: Direct observation of procedural skill (DOPS) is a method of assessing a trainee's performance in a work setting. It involves a supervisor monitoring the trainee while they carry out a procedural skill using a structured checklist. This study aimed to investigate the perceptions and levels of satisfaction among medical interns and their assessors during their surgical clinical attachments at the Department of Surgery, Debre Tabor University, Ethiopia.
Methods: The research was based on the steps of an action research project. The test includes basic surgery procedures like securing a peripheral IV line and drawing blood for testing, as well as skills like suturing and knot tying, putting in a nasogastric tube (NGT), and putting in a trans-urethral urinary catheter. The data gathering instruments used were self-administered, semi-structured questionnaires for both interns and their evaluators. After the implementation of the DOPS interventions, the questionnaire was distributed to both students and instructors. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.0 software, calculating frequency and percentage values for comparison.
Results: Most of participants believe that DOPS has the potential to enhance the objectivity of assessing students' skills. The majority of participants strongly agreed that DOPS enhances the relationship between students and teachers, provides valuable feedback to medical interns, should continue in other departments in the future, and is an effective teaching and learning tool. The DOPS performance showed a significant improvement between the first and second assessments in all four procedures.
Conclusion: DOPS can serve as a standard tool for assessing fundamental practical abilities in the surgical fields. Given that action research involves a paradigm shift and necessitates ongoing reflection and improvement, it is advisable to conduct additional studies to evaluate the performance of interns in all other departments.
Keywords
Article Details
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2.Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3.Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.