Effect of skill laboratory training on academic performance of medical students.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of skill lab training on academic performance of final year medical students in terms of marks obtained in long case, short case, objective structured clinical examination and viva.

METHODS: The cross-sectional comparative study was conducted at Army Medical College, Rawalpindi from February to April 2015. Two batches of final year MBBS were recruited for the study. Batch 1 received conventional training, and Batch 2 received skill lab training. The performance of students was assessed by comparing the marks obtained in long case, short case, objective structured clinical examination and viva. Data was analysed using SPSS 23.

RESULTS: Of the 335 subjects, 168(50.1%) were male and 167(49.9%) were female students with a mean age of 21.79±1.02 years. Batch 1 had 151(45%) students and Batch 2 had 184(55%). Batch 2 got significantly higher marks in long case, short case and objective structured clinical examination (p<0.05 each). Viva result was not found to be related to training (p>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Acquisition of clinical skills significantly improved when medial students were trained in skill laboratories.