Cureus. 2024 Dec 1;16(12):e74888. doi: 10.7759/cureus.74888. eCollection 2024 Dec.
ABSTRACT
Introduction Mind The Bleep (MTB) is an online medical education organisation run by United Kingdom-based resident doctors. It represents one of a number of free-open access online medical resources (FOAMed) that have increased in popularity, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. The surgical team of MTB works to produce high-quality surgical educational resources aimed at early postgraduate doctors. This paper provides an appraisal of the teams’ current methods of teaching and the learning points identified from these. Methods This was a retrospective mixed-method review analysing quantitative and qualitative data sources including website analytics and feedback surveys. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to identify significant differences between pre- and post-session confidence levels in the subject matter. Results A total of 22 online targeted education programmes, with a total of 140 webinars were completed between November 2021 and August 2024. The total live viewership was 6733 participants with a mean of 48.1 per webinar. The total attendance including live and watched later was 10221 participants, with a mean of 73 total viewers per webinar. Of the total viewers, 4714 provided feedback (46.1%). Across all webinar series, we identified a statistically significant increase in participant-rated confidence (p<0.05). Discussion Our ability to produce consistent high-quality content is due to leveraging a near-peer teaching model and recruiting resident doctors as teachers. This method ensures cognitive congruence between participant and educator and provides doctors an opportunity to gain teaching experience. Our social media advertising has ensured wide reach. To the best of our knowledge, we provide the first large-scale breakdown of the work done by an online surgical education organisation. Limitations include a low feedback rate and feedback limited to Kirkpatrick type 1 learner reaction.
PMID:39624814 | PMC:PMC11608416 | DOI:10.7759/cureus.74888
