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Randomized Prospective Study Comparing the Effectiveness of Massed and Spaced Learning in Microsurgical Procedures

NCT03626025 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 42

Last updated 2018-08-10

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Title: Randomized prospective study comparing the effectiveness of spaced learning to mass learning in microsurgical procedures.

Background:

Spacing phenomenon occurs when learning outcomes are greater with the teaching process spread out over time (spaced learning), as opposed to having the same total duration of teaching carried out over a single session (mass learning). Spaced learning has been shown to improve explicit memory tasks including free recall, recognition, cued -recall and frequency estimation. It has been used in various medical specialties with promising results and has been shown to be at least as good as mass training in learning clinical skills such as cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and laparoscopy skills.

We aim to test the concept of spaced learning in learning delicate and complex skilled procedures like microsurgery. Our hypothesis is that spaced learning is better than mass learning in acquiring microsurgical suturing skills.

Methodology:

Medical students with no prior exposure to microsurgical training were randomized into control (mass-learning) and treatment (spaced learning) groups. The students were all taught to handle microsurgical instruments and to suture a prefabricated 4mm wide elastic strip under the microscope using Digital Surgicals MicroTrainer. The control group was taught continuously over 8hrs while the treatment group was taught in 2-hour sessions held each week over a span of 4 weeks. The learning outcomes that were measured included duration taken as well as the placement of the sutures in relation to each other, with the latter being objectively assessed with the use of a computer program from Digital Surgicals. In addition to being assessed at the beginning of the sessions, all participants completed another test 1 month after the completion of the sessions.

Conditions

  • Mass Learning, Spaced Learning, Microsurgery

Interventions

OTHER

Spaced learning

Instead of learning over a single session, teaching is carried out over a few weekly sessions but maintaining the overall total number of hours spent on teaching

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Hand & Reconstructive Microsurgery

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
21 Years
Max Age
26 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2017-01-01
Primary Completion
2017-02-28
Completion
2017-03-30

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03626025 on ClinicalTrials.gov