Abstract

• With the outbreak of COVID-19, it has not been possible for clinical teachers to guide student’s learning through patient management by the bedside. All teachers have adapted to Zoom teaching but clinical experience is essential in their learning. Learning about operations is an important part of understanding surgery. 

• Our department has previously produced micromodules on emergency surgery with essential steps demonstrated in carefully narrated, edited operative videos. This project was welcomed by final year medical students with great feedback. 

• Open surgery has always been difficult to film as access is limited and the operative field needs to remain sterile. The new innovation of commercially available high definition camera glasses has now made it possible to film the open operation via surgeons eyes, without a need of a film crew 24/7, thus reducing infection risk and cost of filming. The clips will be edited in house by surgeons to bite size portions to be incorporated into multi-purpose teaching (online zoom teaching / flipped classroom / self-access eLearning / face-to-face teaching). This will potentially allow students online access to a list of all common operations, offering more standardized teaching to ever increasing number of medical students.  

Brief write-up

Project objectives

To allow students to see what the surgeons see during open surgery, to enhance their understanding of Surgery, especially during the COVID pandemic with limited clinical exposure for students.

Activities, process and outcomes

Student focus group was formed, to assess the needs of the students. Open surgery was recorded using various wearable high-definition cameras for different types of surgery by different surgeons. Feedbacks were obtained from the surgeons and captured images were reviewed. Short video clips of important stages of the operations were used to supplement online teaching during COVID pandemic to enhance Year 6 medical student’s surgical teaching.

Deliverables and evaluation

Short video clips and images captured were used for online teaching by surgeons. It is also being used to produce online teaching modules. The pros and cons of using different cameras were identified after feedback was obtained from different surgeons using different systems for different operations. Students appreciated the video clips of the essential steps of surgery.

Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices

The cameras are continuing to be used to record more videos for students and trainee teachings within the Department of Surgery. The manuscript is currently being prepared for submission to a peer reviewed journal for dissemination of good practice.

Impact on teaching and learning

Students were not allowed to enter operating theatre during the COVID Pandemic, limiting their exposure to surgery. Therefore, this greatly enhanced their online surgical teaching and improved their understanding.