Hands‑On Workshop on Museum And Plastination Techniques, at the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, Ijanikin: An Objective Impact Assessment of Participants

Abstract

Introduction: Pre- and post–assessment examinations are invaluable to evaluate the knowledge base of participants in educational programs or workshops. It is plausible that there is no significant effect on the knowledge base of participants at the end of the hands on workshop. The aim of this study is to test this hypothesis by determining the effect of the hands-on workshop on the knowledge gained by the participants. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study. The targets were all participants who partook in both the pre- and post-assessment examinations of the hands on workshop on museum and plastination techniques, organized by the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN), held from, 21st to 25th of August, 2017. The effect of the hands‑on workshop was tested, using self‑pairing of data obtained from the scores of the pre‑ and post‑test assessment. The self‑paired data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 16 (SPSS 16, SPSS Inc. Chicago, Illinois, United States of America) using the paired t‑test, with the level of statistical significance set at p ≤ 0.05. The critical t value was obtained from the tables of critical values of t distribution at p = 0.05 and the degree of freedom (df) = n‑1, where n is the sample size. Result: The result showed a substantial increase in the knowledge gained by the participants. Statistically, there was a significant difference between the mean percentage pre- and post-assessment test scores at p = 0.03 for museum techniques, p ≤ 0.0001 for plastination techniques and p ≤ 0.0001 for the overall assessment. Discussion: This workshop has significantly improved the knowledge of participants in museum and plastination techniques, hence, we reject the aforementioned hypothesis. Conclusion: It brings to fore the usefulness of hands-on techniques in passing knowledge from tutors to tutees.