Background: Ensuring long-term retention of the acquired practical skills is one of the major aims of a medical school. This depends on the application of training techniques and their combinations. In order to standardize the teaching process, to acquire and maintain a broad array of technical, professional, and interpersonal skills and competencies, and to improve the retention of practical skills, we developed a new training technique - the HybridLab® learning method. It consists of an e-learning platform, hands-on simulation, carefully elaborated learning algorithms (DRAKON), peer-to-peer teaching, and assessment and feedback by peers, and later - by a remote instructor. Summary of the work: The subjects of the study were fifth-year students of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Medical Academy who during 2014-2015 were studying the obstetrics and gynecology module in the neonatology cycle. We analyzed the retention of practical skills in the initial neonatal resuscitation among students who were training with the use of our developed HybridLab® technique at 6 and 12 months after the completion of the cycle.
Summary of results: After 6 and 12 months, mean changes in the subjects' evaluation scores (percentage drop-off between the first and the second total score) dropped by, respectively, 31.8% (SD: 27.5) and 7.7% (SD: 25.6), and did not differ statistically significantly (p = .2). In the group of subjects who were not given a possibility to remember the skills and the course of initial neonatal resuscitation, the mean change between the first and the second total evaluation scores was 42.5% (SD: 26.7). In students who were given such possibility, the mean change between the first and the second total evaluation scores was significantly smaller -12.7% (SD: 13.8) (p < .001). Changes in the evaluation scores of individual skills (first steps, mouth-to-mouth ventilation, and chest compressions) between the first and the second evaluation also differed statistically significantly and were smaller in the group of students who were given a possibility to remember their skills (p < .001).
Discussion: The HybridLab® learning method is a novel technique, and thus more studies are required to evaluate the significance of the HybridLab® technique for long-time retention of practical skills.
Conclusion: As a result of the application of the HybridLab® training technique, practical skill retention among medical students after 6 and 12 months dropped by only about 13%. A recall system significantly improved practical skill retention.
Keywords: HybridLab®; initial neonatal resuscitation; practical skill retention.