Students’ Feedback on Effectiveness of Combined Flipped Classroom and High Fidelity Simulated Teaching on Airway and Ventilation During Accident and Emergency Posting

Simulation-based medical education enables knowledge, skills and attitudes to be taught in a safe, realistic manner. Flipped classroom teaching encourages self-learning. Emergency medicine exposes students to diverse group of patients and physicians’ decision making. This study aims to determine students’ perception on knowledge, skills and confidence after combined flipped classroom and simulated teaching. Two cohorts of Semester 7 students Group 1 (n = 120) and Group 2 (n = 78) completed a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. Group 1 completed the questionnaire after a lapse of six months while Group 2 at the end the posting. Responses from both cohorts were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test. Of 198 (Groups 1 and 2) students, 91.41% (n = 181) felt the simulated sessions helped better understand care of emergency patients. The sessions helped identify knowledge gaps (89.90%; n = 178), improve knowledge and understanding of oxygen therapy devices (85.35%; n = 169), and airway equipment (90.91%; n = 180). They prepared better for the flipped classroom teaching than traditional sessions (80.81%; n = 160). They felt that their communication skills (82.32%; n = 163) and confidence (63.64%; n = 126) improved. Significant differences noted to questions (p = 0.006, p = 0.005, p = 0.041 respectively) targeting knowledge on oxygen therapy devices, confidence, and identification of gaps in knowledge respectively. Combined simulation and flipped classroom teaching was well received by students though this requires more preparation.