Gynaecology Teaching Associates Versus Teaching on Manikins: a Randomised Controlled Trial

Detailed Summary

Physical examination of the pelvis is an important core skill that medical students need to acquire. However, due to its intimate nature some students are graduating unable to perform competent pelvic examinations. Gynaecological Teaching Associates (GTA's) are women who have been trained to be examined and give valuable feedback to the students. In North America GTA's are quite commonly used in the medical curriculum and they have also been used in Canada, Australia and Scandinavia. In the UK pelvic examination is mainly taught using a combination of clinic patients, pelvic models and patients anaesthetised for surgery. In Birmingham we have already started using GTA's and like other Universities such as Oxford the students have given positive feedback. GTA's are paid professionals and hence introducing this method of teaching has financial implications for Universities. Unless it is proven to be worthwhile it is unlikely that academic institutions will introduce and maintain GTA programs. One UK study did show that those who had been trained with a GTA's and pelvic models were significantly better than those who had been trained with pelvic models alone. However, in this study the GTA training was supplementary to the normal curriculum so the amount of teaching rather than the style of teaching may have acted as a confounding factor. Therefore, a large randomised trial of trainees on the Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O\&G) programme comparing those given an initial teaching session on a pelvic model and those taught by GTA's is needed to assess the effectiveness of GTA's on confidence and competence of the students by the end of the training programme is needed.

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