Additional simulation training: does it affect students' knowledge acquisition and retention?

Introduction: Teaching medical skills during clinical rotation is a complex challenge, which often does not allow students to practise their skills. Nowadays, the use of simulation training has increased to teach skills to medical students. However, transferring the learnt skills from one setting to the other is challenging. In this study, we investigated whether adding a simulation training before the clinical rotation would improve students' acquisition and retention of knowledge. Methods: Two subsequent cohorts were compared. Group A followed the traditional curriculum without additional simulation training. Group B attended an additional simulation training, in which history taking, physical examination and procedures for the primary survey in emergency situations were taught. Both groups answered the same knowledge test before entering their clinical rotation and after 6 months. To analyse students' scores over time, we conducted a repeated measure analysis of variance. To investigate the difference between knowledge, we conducted a t-test. Results: Group B scored significantly higher in both tests and all subscores, except in the Trauma topic in the first measurement point. Students in group A showed decay in knowledge whereas group B showed an increase in knowledge. Conclusions: Adding a simulation training, before students entered their clinical rotation, improves students' knowledge acquisition and retention compared with those who did not receive the additional simulation training.