Educational intervention improves measurement of blood pressure skills in Iranian medical students

Background: The routine method of measuring blood pressure (BP) is subject to numerous pitfalls. We evaluated the impact of a guidelines-based educational intervention on improvement of BP determination by fourth-year Iranian medical students.

Methods: Using a consecutive sampling technique, 103 fourth-year medical students were recruited during their rotation in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at the Tabriz Medical School at the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. All students attended a 3-hour training class covering accurate BP measurement. Using a valid checklist, sixteen elements of BP measurement skills were assessed among students before and after two weeks of training. McNemar’s test, paired-sample t tests and Pearson’s chi-square test were used to compare the data before and after training using SPSS version 23.

Results: The study showed that before the training class most of the elements of BP measurement skills were not performed by most of the students, and 9 of 16 BP measurement skills were only performed by <20% of the students. Following the training class, however, 14 of 16 BP measurement skills were performed by >70% of the students. Before training, mean/SD of correctly-performed-skills out of 16 skills was 4.76/2.03. After training, the mean/SD was 13.99/5.19 (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: This study showed a significant improvement in medical students’ BP measurement skills after a 3-hour course of training. Thus, it appears that periodic training sessions of accurate BP measurement for medical students may be of great benefit and equal importance in medical schools.