The Development of a Video Intervention to Improve Senior Medical Students’ Performance on Outpatient Telephone Encounters: a Delphi Analysis and Randomized Controlled Trial

Mack, Jacob A.; Morgan, Helen K.; Fitzgerald, James T.; Walford, Eric C.; Heidemann, Lauren A.

INTRODUCTION: Postgraduate trainees address outpatient telephone calls (OTCs) with little prior training. This study determines the skills necessary for OTCs and examines whether a video intervention improves medical students’ performance on simulated OTCs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We utilized a Delphi technique to determine skills needed for OTCs and created a 9-min video teaching these skills. Senior medical students were randomized to Intervention (viewed video) and Control (did not view video) groups. Students were assessed pre-/post-intervention on simulated OTCs. The primary outcome was the between-group difference in improvement. RESULTS: The Delphi yielded 34 important skills with the highest focus on communication (n = 13) and triage (n = 6). Seventy-two students completed assessments (Control, n = 41; Intervention, n = 31). The score (mean ± SD) improved 4.3% in the Control group (62.3 ± 14.3% to 66.6 ± 25.0%) and 12.2% in the Intervention group (60.7 ± 15.2% to 72.9 ± 20.4%, p = 0.15). The effect size measured by Cohen’s d was 0.55, considered effective (> 0.33) for an educational intervention. CONCLUSIONS: This project fills a gap in OTC training. The use of the Delphi technique, intervention development based on the results, and evaluation of efficacy is a process that could be reproduced for other educational gaps. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-021-01331-w.