Does a smartphone application improve Medical Students and New ENT junior doctors confidence when dealing with ENT clinical scenarios?

Prior to most rotations within ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery, many junior doctors lack experience within ENT, as the speciality is not as well covered as most other specialities within medicine, particularly at an undergraduate level. With ever-changing technology, it has become the backbone to the core of medicine and the development of healthcare. Thus, the development of an electronic ENT application may improve junior doctors’ confidence in approaching common ENT scenarios. A cohort of 10 junior doctors and 10 medical students based at Blackpool Victoria Hospital in England, UK, were asked to rate their confidence in approaching 5 common ENT scenarios before and after being granted access to an ENT application developed within the trust. Every participant showed an increase in their confidence score in dealing with each ENT scenario following access to the application. Junior doctors’ confidence scores showed an overall average confidence increase of 148% alongside a 124% increase in medical students too. From this study it was clearly shown that an ENT smartphone application was highly successful in increasing both junior doctors’ and medical students’ confidence in approaching common ENT clinical scenarios. The provision of such a resource for surgical subspecialties promotes a further step towards a paperless national healthcare system as well as a standardised way of approaching patient care.

Author(s): Taranvir Karir

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