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Educational Instruction on a Hospital Information System for Medical Students During Their Surgical Rotations

Affiliation of the authors: University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Correspondence and reprint requests: Robert Patterson, MD, Box 336, Squamish, BC, Canada V0N 3G0; e-mail: <robpatterson{at}attcanada.net>.

Objective: To evaluate the benefit, for medical students on their surgical rotations, of real-time educational instruction during order entry on a hospital information system.

Design: Prospective controlled trial.

Intervention: Access to educational information during computerized order entry.

Subjects: Medical students in their final year at the University of Calgary.

Main outcomes: Attainment of the surgery rotation educational objectives, as measured by performance on a multiple-choice examination.

Methods: Before they began their surgical rotations, students at two hospitals took a multiple-choice examination to measure their knowledge of surgery. One hospital had an information system with computerized order entry; students at this hospital had access, while composing orders, to educational material on the system. The other hospital did not have an information system; students there wrote orders on a paper chart. At the end of the rotation, all students took another multiple-choice examination.

Results: Of 50 eligible students, 45 agreed to participate in the project, 21 in the treatment group and 24 in the control group. Pre-rotation scores were similar for the two groups (43 percent in the treatment group and 40 percent in the control group; SD, 10 percent). Post-rotation scores were identical for the two groups (65 percent in the treatment group and 65 percent in the control group; SD, 12 percent). A t-test analysis revealed no significant difference in performance on the examinations between the two groups.

Conclusion: This study did not demonstrate a learning advantage for medical students who have access to educational material on a hospital information system.

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