Are Dermatology Electives Meeting The Learning Objectives of Rotators?

Abstract

Introduction: Learners rely on dermatology electives to supplement their education. Our goal is to determine whether electives adequately address the rotators’ learning objectives.

Methods: A survey was distributed to medical students and residents on a dermatology elective to assess their specific learning objectives and rotation satisfaction.

Results: The survey had a 50% response rate (n=36). 74.2% of survey respondents were medical students (n=23) and 25.8% were residents (n=8). 57.1% of all rotators were interested improving their morphology/description of skin lesions (n=20). Residents were most interested in exposure to basic dermatological procedures (50%, n=4) whereas medical students were most interested in morphology/ descriptions of skin lesions (81.8%, n=18). Medical students with an interest in dermatology expressed a greater interest in career exploration (n=8) compared to medical student not interested in dermatology (n=4).

Discussion: Most rotators wanted to gain basic exposure to dermatology, however training level and interest played a role in determining the most important learning objective. Residents displayed a greater interested in procedural training while medical students wanted to gain more exposure to basic dermatology skills.

Conclusion: Customizing the dermatology elective to the trainee will allow the greater engagement during the rotation rather than a ‘one size fits all’ elective.