Anesthesia machine checkout and room setup: a randomized, single-blind, comparison of two teaching modalities.

Background: Novel methods for teaching are needed to enhance the efficiency of academic anesthesia departments as well as provide approaches to learning that are aligned with current trends and advances in technology.

Methods: A video was produced that taught the key elements of anesthesia machine checkout and room set up. Novice learners were randomly assigned to receive either the new video format or traditional lecture-based format for this topic during their regularly scheduled lecture series. Primary outcome was the difference in written examination score before and after teaching between the two groups. Secondary outcome was the satisfaction score of the trainees in the two groups.

Results: Forty-two students assigned to the video group and 36 students assigned to the lecture group completed the study. Students in each group similar interest in anesthesia, pre-test scores, post-test scores, and final exam scores. The median posttest to pretest difference was greater in the video groups (3.5 (3.0-5.0) vs 2.5 (2.0-3.0), for video and lecture groups respectively, p 0.002). Despite improved test scores, students reported higher satisfaction the traditional, lecture-based format (22.0 (18.0-24.0) vs 24.0 (20.0-28.0), for video and lecture groups respectively, p <0.004).

Conclusions: Higher pre-test to post-test improvements were observed among students in the video-based teaching group, however students rated traditional, live lectures higher than newer video-based teaching.