Evaluating Video-Based Instruction for Third-Year Medical Students Rotating in Obstetrics and Gynecology Based on a Standardized Checklist

There is currently no standard recommendation among osteopathic medical schools for appropriate obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) surgical procedure videos for third-year medical students (OMS III) in preparation for their OB/GYN rotations. OMS III student doctors will very likely participate in an OB/GYN procedure on their very first day of clinical rotations. In an effort to adequately prepare medical students for the procedural portion of their clinical rotations, videobased instruction is necessary. According to a recent study, YouTube is the most frequently accessed educational video source when students are preparing for surgical-based rotations and procedures. We hypothesized that there is a lack of ideal surgical videos to sufficiently prepare the third-year medical student for two common OB/GYN procedures. Utilizing input from two faculty OB/GYN physicians and four OMS II medical students, a checklist of essential components of the ideal instructional video for a third-year medical student was developed for two common procedures, cesarean section and robotic hysterectomy. Upon completion of the checklist, YouTube videos were selected by entering the search phrase, “Step by step cesarean section procedure” and, “Step by step robotic laparoscopic total hysterectomy procedure”. The top 20 instructional videos to appear upon entering the search criteria for each procedure were selected for evaluation. Binary data was collected on whether each video met each checklist item (yes or no). No single video met all checklist items. Every video lacked two or more critical elements. 30/40 videos (75%) met less than 50% of the checklist items. The hypothesis that there is a lack of ideal videos for a third-year medical student entering their OB/GYN rotation was true based on our ideal video checklist. Our findings suggest that students are unlikely to find the ideal resource on the commonly accessed video platform which may have a negative impact on student preparation for clinical rotations. Our checklist can provide a guideline for the development of OB/GYN procedural videos for OMS III students.