The AAO Journal, 2022/06, 32(2):30-31. doi: 10.53702/2375-5717-32.2.15, type of study: ,css,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Free full text   (https://meridian.allenpress.com/aaoj/article/32/2/15/482674/LBORC-NUFA-Poster-Abstracts-2022-Students)

Keywords:

cross-sectional study [69]
medical students [693]
OMT [3925]
osteopathic manipulative treatment [3946]
osteopathic practice [30]

Abstract:

Introduction/Background: Increased clinical exposure to osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is associated with increased confidence in performing OMT amongst clinical-year osteopathic medical students. Research demonstrating preclinical experience’s impact on comfortability performing OMT is limited. Objective: We aimed to investigate how varying medical student experiences at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM) affect students’ perceived ability to perform OMT and likelihood of using OMT as physicians. We hypothesized that those who performed or received OMT outside of class would be more likely to anticipate performing OMT in the future. Methods: A RedCap survey was distributed to 2ndthrough 4th-year NYITCOM students at the Old Westbury (OW) and Jonesboro (JB) campuses. Students reported their campus, class year, prior experience receiving OMT, and perceived likelihood of using OMT as physicians. Comfortability was considered a ≥5 score on a Likert scale from 0 to 10. IBM SPSS software was used to perform chi-square tests on the 219 responses collected. Significance was set at p<0.05. Results: Across various OMT techniques, 2nd-years and JB students more frequently reported high performance comfortability (chi-square test: p<0.05). Neither prior experience of receiving OMT nor performing OMT outside of learning in school significantly impacted performance comfortability. Students with increased performance comfortability were more likely to report that they would perform the technique in the future (chi-square test: p<0.05). Discussion/Conclusion: Preclinical students, JB students, and students who reported higher performance comfortability were generally more likely to perform OMT in future practice. Our findings may guide medical school curricula to improve the likelihood of students performing OMT as physicians. Some surveys were not fully completed, variably limiting sample sizes across the techniques.