PERFORMANCE OF MEDICAL STUDENTS IN THE INTERPRETATION OF THE ELECTROCARDIOGRAM: TRAINING PATHS AND COMPETENCIES

Abstract

Introduction: The electrocardiogram (ECG) has established itself as one of the most important diagnostic tools in cardiology, since it is a simple and safe test to be performed, widely available and because it has a good cost-effectiveness ratio, which enables many clinical uses and makes the ability to interpret it relevant to physicians of different specialties and in different scenarios. Objectives: to identify the main methods and training, institutional and personal paths used by medical students that correlate with a greater ability to properly diagnose a 12-lead electrocardiogram. Methodology: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study, which was attended by undergraduate medical students, from the 3rd to the 6th year, of a public university in the state of Mato Grosso. The students answered a questionnaire containing 11 subjective questions to assess the population characteristics of interest regarding their previous training path and 20 electrocardiographic tracings, divided into three blocks of analysis: B1 (basic notions of ECG), B2 (life-threatening disorders) and B3 (most prevalent disorders in clinical practice). Results: A total of 67 medical students from one of the public universities in the state of Mato Grosso (female: n = 43; male: n = 24), aged 21-48 years (26.7 ± 4.86), answered the proposed questionnaire. The overall average performance of the students was 51.49 points, with a progressive and significant improvement in the performance of students from the 3rd to the 6th year, reaching the apex during the 5th year of graduation. Conclusion: The survey respondents presented a very satisfactory performance regarding the competence for the diagnosis of electrocardiographic tracings when compared to the performances of students from universities in Europe and the USA reported in the Literature. In our sample, the main factor correlated with a better performance to interpret the electrocardiogram was the individualized study of the students, which reflects a better exploration of training resources, which, in turn, results in a higher level of confidence to interpret the electrocardiogram and, consequently, in a better performance of these individuals in the domain of this competency. Among the study participants, the main strategy used to teach electrocardiography was seminars, in addition to individualized study.