Development of otoscopy skills among general practitioners: how to improve the effectiveness of training?

The article presents the results of research of theoretical knowledge and practical skills of general practitioners with more than 5 years of experience.

The aim of the study is to assess the level of proficiency in otoscopy by General practitioners using a simulator, depending on various socio-demographic characteristics.

Materials and methods. The study was conducted at the Department of family medicine of North-Western State Medical University named after I.I. Mechnikov. Doctors who agreed to participate in the project filled out a socio-demographic questionnaire, tests to test theoretical knowledge, for the level of proficiency in otoscopy, was evaluated using a checklist. Statistical analysis of the data was performed using the SPSS 22.0 program (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA). The study involved 24 General practitioners with more than 5 years of experience.

Results. Analysis of the results showed that 66.7% of General practitioners rated their skill in otoscopy as “satisfactory” or higher, but only 54.1% were able to correctly perform 70% of the actions according to the checklist.

Conclusions. 1. The level of theoretical knowledge in otoscopy among General practitioners with experience who took part in the study was quite low: 62.5% of respondents did not achieve satisfactory results. A low level of proficiency in otoscopy among General practitioners was also revealed when evaluating the performance of manipulation on the simulator — only 20.8% of doctors correctly performed 80% of the actions according to the checklist. 2. Independent assessment of the level of proficiency in otoscopy in General practitioners is not a predictor of the success of its demonstration on the simulator in accordance with the checklist. 3. The level of proficiency in otoscopy in the study group of General practitioners did not have a statistically significant relationship with the basic level of theoretical knowledge, work experience and regular otoscopy in everyday practice.