Abstract
Purpose :
Ophthalmology education is underrepresented in many medical school curricula which can lead to decreased physician competency in identifying and treating primary eye diseases. The University of New Mexico (UNM) introduced 6 additional hours of flipped classroom education as part of a new ophthalmology curriculum. We conducted a cross-sectional study to assess the efficacy of the new curriculum.
Methods :
All medical students at UNM were invited to take part in the study, but only second-year students received the new curriculum. The study comprised an opinion survey and a 12-question knowledge assessment quiz based on objectives set by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Mean quiz scores and survey outcomes were calculated for each class and the results were compared using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Results :
72 participants completed the survey and 58 completed the quiz. The survey indicated that second-year students felt the most comfortable among all four classes answering ophthalmology questions on the USMLE Step 1 exam. Fifteen (57.7%) second-year participants felt somewhat or very comfortable, compared to just 4 (23.5%) third-year, 1 (6.3%) fourth-year, and 0 (0%) first-year students. Similarly, 23 (88.5%) second-year students felt that ophthalmology training was somewhat or very important. By comparison, only 13 (76.5%) third-year, 7 (53.9%) first-year, and 8 (50.0%) fourth-year students agreed. Additionally, 3 (11.5%) second-year students reported interest in ophthalmology as a specialty, compared to 4 (30.8%) first-year, 0 (0%) third-year, and 1 (6.3%) fourth-year students.
The quiz portion of the study revealed that third and second-year students performed comparably, with average scores of 68.8% (SD 15.8%) and 67.3% (SD 13.0%), respectively. Fourth and first-year students performed worse at 48.7% (SD 21.2%) and 31.8% (SD 17.3%), respectively.
Conclusions :
The survey results demonstrate students that underwent the new curriculum felt more confident answering ophthalmology questions and were more likely to consider ophthalmology an important subject. Although the quiz results were comparable between second and third-year students, this may be the result of third-year students performing additional self-education to prepare for the recent USMLE Step 1 exam. Similarly, fourth-year students are farther removed from their Step 1 exam, which may explain the reduced knowledge retention reflected by the quiz.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.