Improving Medical Student Clinical Knowledge and Skills Through Influenza Education

Background: This project aimed to implement a rigorous evaluation of influenza vaccine education as a learning tool for influenza and medical knowledge and clinical proficiency. Methods: Among 280 Stony Brook University first-year medical students, 80 were randomly selected to participate in the Stony Brook influenza vaccine education program. Participants completed an anonymous pre-survey assessing participants’: (1) experience and attitudes towards flu vaccines, (2) knowledge base of the flu virus and vaccine, (3) self-rated knowledge of the flu virus and vaccine, and (4) self-rated proficiency of clinical skills relevant to administering flu vaccines. Students then completed an educational module and vaccinated either employee healthcare workers or patients at a student-run free health clinic. Following the vaccination experience, participants completed a post-survey including questions identical to those on the pre-survey and questions regarding their evaluation of the flu vaccine education program. The pre- and post-survey data were paired, established through matching surrogate study identification codes, and differences between survey responses were analyzed using paired t-tests. Results: Eighty first-year medical students participated in the pre-survey, while 55 participated in the post-survey. Compared to the pre-survey, participants significantly improved their knowledge base related to the flu virus and vaccine as well as their self-rated knowledge and clinical skills, in the post-survey. Conclusions: The Stony Brook influenza vaccination program succeeded in establishing medical student training and practice with service learning. Our study is the first to provide quantitative evidence of influenza vaccine education programs improving medical student knowledge and clinical skills.