Creation and evaluation of a participatory child abuse and neglect workshop for medical students

• Published in: BMC medical education Vol. 22; no. 1; p. 797
• Main Authors: Giannakas, Christos, Manta, Aspasia, Livanou, Maria Effrosyni, Daniil, Vasiliki, Paraskeva, Angeliki, Georgiadou, Maria-Konstantina, Griva, Nefeli, Papaevangelou, Vassiliki, Tsolia, Maria, Leventhal, John M, Soldatou, Alexandra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 16.11.2022; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Active learning; Adult Basic Education; Adult Students; Child; Child abuse; Child abuse & neglect; Child Abuse - prevention & control; Child maltreatment; Child Neglect; Curricula; Curriculum; Didacticism; Education, Medical, Undergraduate - methods; Educational Measurement; Health aspects; Humans; Knowledge; Laboratories; Medical curriculum; Medical education; Medical students; Methods; Participation; Pediatrics; Peer tutoring; Peer-group tutoring of students; Peer-to-peer teaching; Questionnaires; Role-playing; Self evaluation; Simulation; Statistical analysis; Students, Medical; Study and teaching; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Volunteers; Workshops; Greece; Medical curriculum; Medical education; Role-playing; Peer-to-peer teaching; Active learning; Child maltreatment
• DOI: 10.1186/s12909-022-03837-2
• ISSN: 1472-6920

Since child abuse and neglect (CAN) is prevalent worldwide, medical students should acquire basic knowledge, skills, and confidence in identifying and addressing CAN. Although significant educational efforts have been previously described, none has focused on using participatory methods to teach medical students CAN. To: 1) develop a participatory educational workshop in CAN for medical students, 2) gather, train, and establish a peer-to-peer teaching group, and 3) assess the effectiveness of the workshop in gain of knowledge and improvement of self-confidence for participants. A two-hour workshop was created with role-playing, the use of mannikins and peer-to-peer teaching. A 15-item knowledge and a 9-item self-confidence questionnaire were used before, right after, and six months after each workshop. Nine workshops in two academic pediatric departments with a total attendance of 300 6th year medical students were conducted. For the 69 students who completed the questionnaires at all three times, there were statistically significant gains in knowledge right after (p < .001) and six months after (p < .0001) the workshops. Similarly, self-confidence increased right after (p < .0001) and six months after (p < .001) the workshops. Self-selection bias testing indicated that these 69 students who completed all three questionnaires were representative of those who completed the pre-testing and the testing right after. We successfully established a peer-to-peer teaching group to conduct nine participatory workshops that improved the participants' knowledge and self-confidence in CAN. This feasible and novel active learning approach may help address inadequacies in medical curricula.