The Effect of Immediate Feedback on Long-term Blood Pressure Measurement Skills: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Overview

The present study aims to investigate the effect of immediate feedback on long-term blood pressure measurement skills. This is a randomized controlled trial including first year students from a Brazilian medical school, which will be randomized in two groups: an intervention group (submitted to a training on blood pressure measurement skills and an immediate feedback) and a control group (submitted to a training on blood pressure measurement skills, but with no immediate feedback). Then, students will be assessed 3 months after the feedback in order to see whether there will be a difference between groups. Our hypothesis is that students submitted to immediate feedback would have better scores in the blood-pressure measurement skills after 3 months. A knowledge questionnaire as well as a standardized patient scenario will be used to assess students' knowledge and skills.

There are several studies evaluating the role of feedback in medical education, showing promising outcomes. Although, immediate feedback is associated with better knowledge and skills in short-term, few studies have assessed whether immediate feedback could impact the maintenance of skills. The present study aims to investigate the effect of immediate feedback on long-term blood pressure measurement skills. This is a randomized controlled trial including first year students from a Brazilian medical school, which will be randomized in two groups: an intervention group (submitted to a training on blood pressure measurement skills and an immediate feedback after their encounter with an standardized patient - SP) and a control group (submitted to the same training on blood pressure measurement skills, but with no immediate feedback after the SP encounter). Both groups will be trained to measure blood pressure in the same way, with a brief 4-hour theoretical-practical intervention. After the training, students will measure the blood pressure of a standardized patient and observers will evaluate them using a checklist. Then, students will have no other exposure to the BP training for three months and they will be invited again to participate in another SP encounter. Differences on BP skills after 3 months between those exposed to immediate feedback and those not exposed to immediate feedback would be investigated.