Effectiveness of a Clay Pelvic Model: A Hands-on Approach to Understanding Pelvic Floor Anatomy.

Abstract

Understanding pelvic anatomy is an important part of education during obstetrics and gynecology residency. Traditional teaching methods to learn pelvic anatomy have obstacles and are often costly. We provide a self-constructed clay pelvic model to aid in the mastery of pelvic anatomy for obstetrics and gynecology residents and to estimate whether building a clay pelvic model would increase residents' confidence and knowledge in pelvic anatomy. Each resident constructed a clay pelvic model on a bony pelvis, along with the traditional didactic on pelvic anatomy. Demographics of the participants were obtained, followed by a knowledge test and confidence level and satisfaction surveys. Descriptive analysis and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used for data analysis. Nine residents (three postgraduate year [PGY]-1, one PGY-2, two PGY-3, three PGY-4) completed the knowledge and confidence questions before and after the simulation, along with the satisfaction survey. The median score from the 10 multiple-choice knowledge questions was 50% (30-70%) on the pretest and 70% (40-100%) on the posttest (P=not significant). Although most residents scored higher on the posttest, two residents scored 10% lower. Overall, 66.7% of residents improved their knowledge scores up to 30% after the simulation session. Self-assessed confidence level scores improved from 2-3 to 4 (1, lowest; 5, highest) for all questions asked (P=.010 to approximately .019). A majority of residents responded with 4 or 5 to the satisfaction statements. A low-budget clay pelvic model is easy to build and did increase residents' confidence in pelvic anatomy knowledge and satisfaction. Self-constructing a clay pelvic model would provide an excellent way of reviewing the major landmarks of pelvic anatomy.