Medical student perceptions on the instruction of the emergency medicine oral case presentation

Background: The emergency medicine oral case presentation (EM OCP) is the clinician's communication tool to justify whether urgent intervention is required, to argue for ruling out emergent disease states, and to propose safe disposition plans in the context of triaging patients for medical care and prioritization of resources. The EM OCP provides the representation of the practice of emergency medicine, yet we do not know the current level of effectiveness of its instruction.

Objectives: We aimed to document medical student perceptions and expectations of the instruction of the EM OCP.

Methods: We surveyed medical students from five institutions after their emergency medicine clerkship on their instruction of the EM OCP. Analysis included univariate descriptive statistics and chi-squared analyses for interactions.

Results: One hundred fifty-five medical students (82%) completed the survey. Most medical students reported the EM OCP to be unique compared to that of other disciplines (86%), integral to their clerkship evaluation (77%), and felt that additional teaching was required beyond their current medical school instruction (78%). A minority report being specifically taught the EM OCP (37%), that their instruction was consistent (29%), or that expectations of the EM OCP were clear (21%). Respondents felt that brief instruction during their orientation (65%) and reading with a portable summary card (45%) would improve their EM OCP skills, whereas other modalities would be less helpful.

Conclusion: This study identifies a need for additional specific and consistent teaching of the EM OCP to medical students and their preference on how to receive this instruction.