Evaluation of the Effects of Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS) on Clinical Externship Students’ Learning Level in Obstetrics Ward of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences

Background and purpose: Importance of clinical skills learning in medicine cannot be overemphasized but it seems that due attention is not paid to this issue. This study is an attempt to examine the effectiveness of direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS) in this regard.Methods: In this study all externs passing the obstetrics ward rotation in 2005 and 2006for the first time participated. In this study, at first, 7 fundamental skills were selected and checklists for skill evaluation was prepared. Student’s skills was evaluated before and after traditional education(control group) and before and after intervention which added DOPS. Examiners were requested to also provde a global judement of students performance. The data was analysed with paired T- test, T- test by SPSS software.Results: In this study 73 students participated of whom 42 students (57.5%) were in control group, and 31(42.5%) were in intervention group. In control group 47.6% and in interventional group 58.1% were male. Comparing students’ scores for each skill, the intervention group had significantly improved more than control group (p=0.0001). Comparing the interventions means of students’ averages for all skills before and after intervention (49.49 vs 86.03, p<0.0001) with those of control group(49.99 vs 77.43, p<0.0001) showed that the intervention group performed significantly better than control group (36.54 vs 27.44, p<0.0001). The examiner teacher’s opinion about doing each skill by the student correctly showed that the students’ skills in interventional group was more correct than control group. T-test showed a significant difference between groups in improvement of all skills (p=0.000).Conclusion: Using DOPS can be very useful in increasing student’s skill learning.