Introduction:

Physical examination skills, an integral and mandatory part of medical school curricula, are traditionally taught through an approach based on “demonstration and practice”, and although other models exist, there is, to date, no evidence that one is superior to the other. Innovations in this area are pointed out as a way to supply deficiencies in teaching and learning.

Objectives:

To describe the incorporation of video recording and video feedback in the teaching-learning of physical examination skills and to evaluate the effectiveness of such approach.

Method:

A historically controlled study was carried out before and after the intervention with students in the first year of a medical course. The intervention group, in which video recording and video feedback was applied, consisted of 91 students from semester 2019.2 and the control group had 72 students from semester 2018.1. Both classes underwent two summative theoretical (T1 and T2) and two practical assessments, in the format of an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). In the comparative statistical analysis of the grades of both classes, the non-parametric Wilcoxon and Mann Whitney rank test was used.

Results:

The median of the marks of the practical evaluations (1st and 2nd OSCE) of the 2019 class were higher than those of 2018. It was also found that the class of 2019 showed a positive evolution in its practical marks, with the median score increasing from 11.6 in the 1st OSCE to 13.85 in the 2nd OSCE, which also happened with the theoretical tests (p <0.05). In the class of 2018, there was a drop in the median mark from T1 to T2 and from the 1st OSCE to the 2nd OSCE, but without statistical significance.

Conclusion:

The incorporation of video recording and video feedback in teaching-learning physical examination skills among first-year medical students, in simulated environments, proved to be effective in improving student performance in both theoretical and practical assessments. This approach is also shown as a means of developing and applying observational, reflective, experiential and metacognition motor learning in the teaching-learning of physical examination skills among medical students.

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