Clinical trial NCT03626025: Randomized Prospective Study Comparing the Effectiveness of Massed and Spaced Learning in Microsurgical Procedures
Official title: Randomized Prospective Study Comparing the Effectiveness of Massed and Spaced Learning in Microsurgical Procedures
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Mass Learning, Spaced Learning, Microsurgery
Lead sponsor: National University Hospital, Singapore
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2018-08-10
Enrollment: 42
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 21
Maximum age (years): 26
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: Title: Randomized prospective study comparing the effectiveness of spaced learning to mass learning in microsurgical procedures.

Background:

Spacing phenomenon occurs when learning outcomes are greater with the teaching process spread out over time (spaced learning), as opposed to having the same total duration of teaching carried out over a single session (mass learning). Spaced learning has been shown to improve explicit memory tasks including free recall, recognition, cued -recall and frequency estimation. It has been used in various medical specialties with promising results and has been shown to be at least as good as mass training in learning clinical skills such as cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and laparoscopy skills.

We aim to test the concept of spaced learning in learning delicate and complex skilled procedures like microsurgery. Our hypothesis is that spaced learning is better than mass learning in acquiring microsurgical suturing skills.

Methodology:

Medical students with no prior exposure to microsurgical training were randomized into control (mass-learning) and treatment (spaced learning) groups. The students were all taught to handle microsurgical instruments and to suture a prefabricated 4mm wide elastic strip under the microscope using Digital Surgicals MicroTrainer. The control group was taught continuously over 8hrs while the treatment group was taught in 2-hour sessions held each week over a span of 4 weeks. The learning outcomes that were measured included duration taken as well as the placement of the sutures in relation to each other, with the latter being objectively assessed with the use of a computer program from Digital Surgicals. In addition to being assessed at the beginning of the sessions, all participants completed another test 1 month after the completion of the sessions.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Medical students

Exclusion Criteria:

* Anyone who has been exposed to any form of microsurgical training

Primary outcomes:
measure: Duration
timeFrame: For the mass learning group, at the end of the 1-day teaching session; for the spaced learning group, at the end of 1 month of teaching sessions.
measure: Suture density and alignment
timeFrame: For the mass learning group, at the end of the 1-day teaching session; for the spaced learning group, at the end of 1 month of teaching sessions.
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Retention of skills - assessing duration
timeFrame: 1 month after the end of the final teaching session
measure: Retention of skills - assessing suture density and alignment
timeFrame: 1 month after the end of the final teaching session
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
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