Delirium: Medical students’ knowledge and effectiveness of different teaching methods

Abstract Objectives Medical schools are often blamed for inadequately training doctors on delirium. This study assesses the knowledge of medical students about delirium and evaluates different teaching methods for comparing learning outcomes. Design A video, a handout, and video+handout were used as three different teaching methods. Students were assigned randomly to three groups and pre- and post-intervention knowledge gains were compared. Setting Interventions were held between 2015 and 2018 at the University of Heidelberg Medical School in Germany. Participants Seventy-eight (video intervention 33; handout 26; video+handout 19) sixth-year medical students participated. Intervention Participants were taught about delirium with the help of a video, a handout and both video+handout at the start of one-hour lectures dedicated to teaching delirium. Measurements Pre- and post-intervention questionnaires, comprising five multiple choice questions and a self-estimated grade of knowledge about delirium, were used. Variables calculated were objective and subjective knowledge, recall and accuracy of self-assessment. Microsoft Excel and ANCOVA were used to analyse data. Results Knowledge gains for all interventions were large (d>.8) irrespective of gender. Post-hoc comparison showed video and video+handout methods were more effective with high recall for video (92.8%). Students rated their knowledge as satisfactory though they scored 11.4/20. Pre-intervention knowledge level was correctly estimated by 31% of students, and post-intervention by 40.3% students. Conclusion Teaching delirium to medical students with a video resulted in better knowledge transfer and recall. A majority of medical students, particularly males, overestimated their knowledge about delirium.