Evaluation of Mnemonic Instruction for Management of Patients with Poisoning

Background & Objective: Medical education complexity gets worsen when confronting with a lot of information to be memorized and needs to have new techniques for learning and remembering Mnemonic instruction is a way to help students to remember the information or vocabulary more effectively and easily This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of mnemonic instruction among interns in the management of patients with poisoning Methods: A quasiexperimental study performed during ۲۴ months among ۱۲۰ emergency medicine interns in Rasool Akram Hospital Tehran Iran We evaluated the knowledge of two groups of interns (n = ۶۰) about management of patients with poisoning two times with a selfadministered questionnaire (Cronbachs alpha = ۰۷۸) At baseline all the participants were filled the questionnaire as their baseline knowledge of poisoning management; then both groups participated in a standard education course for poisoning management In addition we conducted an additional physical class for case group and taught them about the mnemonics instruction in poisoning At the end of ward rotation all participants answered the same questionnaire and the scores were compared between the groups for each time and within the groups for each test Results: Mean scores were statistically different between the two times of testing in each group (P < ۰۰۰۱) In case group the difference between pre and posttest was (۴۵۳ ± ۳۹۵) statistically less than the control group (۶۷۳ ± ۳۲۶) (P < ۰۰۰۲) Conclusion: Using mnemonics was not effective enough to help interns to remember about management of poisonings better than usual educational activities

Keywords:

Mnemonics , medical education , Emergency medicine , Poisoning , Teaching method evaluation