Sök artiklar i SveMed+

Tidskrift

Sammanfattning

Introduction: Denmark has no tradition of formal assessment of junior doctors' theoretical knowledge. We therefore wanted to investigate whether the knowledge of surgical junior doctors has actually increased. Material and methods: Twenty-three junior doctors were confronted with the same multiple-choice questionnaires twice during a six months period. Subsequently, they were asked whether they would approve the implementation of multiple-choice questionnaires and formal assessment (exam) in the Danish specialist training in surgery. Results: The participants got a significantly higher score the second time they were confronted with the multiple-choice questionnaires (p = 0.0003). When dividing the participants into two groups, viz. young vs. old junior doctors, it was observed that the latter group had a higher score overall but augmented their scores less in relation to their young colleagues (p = 0.038). Forty percent of the participants replied that the multiple-choice questionnaires had motivated them to do further theoretical studies, and half of them approved the introduction of an exam in surgery in the Danish specialist training. Discussion: The theoretical knowledge of junior doctors does actually increase in a relatively short period of time during their employment at a department of surgery. As expected the old junior doctors got a higher score compared to their young colleagues. However, the latter group augments its knowledge relatively more. Multiple-choice questionnaires are easy, accessible, and inexpensive tools for evaluation as well as stimulation for doing further theroretical studies.

MeSH