Student experiences of simulation-based learning and its impact on their performance in objective structured clinical examination in Pediatrics-A mixed method study

Objective: This study aims to assess the effectiveness of integrating simulation for teaching pediatric clinical examination skills to undergraduate, MBBS Year-IV medical students at The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: In this mixed method study, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) scores of the students who were taught using simulation (batch 2017-2018) were compared with the batch of the academic year 2016-2017 (taught via traditional methods). In order to explore the experiences of the intervention group, a questionnaire with four open-ended questions was administered at the end of the clerkship. Results: Students who were taught by simulation, scored significantly higher on the clinical skills stations in Objective Structured Clinical Examination, than in the pre-intervention group (p-value <0.01). The students quoted safety of the learning environment, opportunities for deliberate practice, debriefing and facilitation skills maximized quoted that their experience of learning through simulation, however, some challenges were identified for future improvement. Conclusion: The result of the study suggested simulation as a useful instructional strategy for teaching examination skills to students in their early years. The student gained confidence through deliberate practice and feedback without compromising patient safety, which translated into improved performance in the high-stakes OSCE examination at the end of the clerkship.