The Effect of Time Lapse Between Online Lectures and Clinical Practice on Medical Students' Performance in an Orthopedics Hybrid Course.

Introduction: The integration of technology in medical education has led to the adoption of hybrid teaching methods, combining online lectures with traditional face-to-face clinical practice. While this approach offers flexibility and safety, it raises questions about the impact of potential time lapses between theoretical learning and hands-on experience. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the time interval between online lectures and on-site clinical practice on medical students' performance in orthopedic rotation.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 116 fifth-year medical students who completed their orthopedic rotation during the 2021/2022 academic year. Students underwent a one-week online course followed by three weeks of on-site clinical practice, with varying time lapses (0-38 weeks) between these periods. Performance was assessed through examinations including key features test (KF), multiple-choice questions (MCQ), multiple-essay questions (MEQ), objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), and long case examination. Spearman's rank correlation was used to analyze the relationship between time lapse and examination scores.

Results: The analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between the time lapse duration and KF scores (p < 0.05). However, no significant associations were found between time lapse and scores in MCQ, MEQ, OSCE, or long case examinations (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the time lapse between online lectures and clinical rotation in orthopedic education significantly impacts students' performance in key features tests. However, other examination scores remained unaffected. These findings highlight the need for careful scheduling and potential interventions to mitigate the effects of extended time lapses on specific aspects of medical knowledge retention and application in orthopedic education.