Medical Kitchen: Transdisciplinary Clinical Skills Training

Abstract

Background: Medical Kitchen is an innovative transdisciplinary simulation aimed at helping 2nd-year medical students at Imperial College London transition from declarative to procedural knowledge acquisition and prepare them for learning clinical skills, grounded in established psychomotor skills development theories, including Kovacs' definitions and the Fitts and Posner's model. Approach: It employs a transdisciplinary simulation approach that blends professional gastronomy with medical training. Designed initially in response to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, the course offers a scalable and replicable model that includes mechanisms for peer feedback and reflective exercises. Evaluation: The responses for these exercises were analysed thematically to gauge the course's effectiveness. Findings suggest that the Medical Kitchen succeeds in creating a low-stakes, safe learning environment that not only enhances practical skill learning but also emphasises the crucial non-technical skills needed in medical practice. Implications: The Medical Kitchen represents a forward-thinking strategy for medical educators seeking to improve procedural skill training, warranting further research into the long-term impacts of the course on student outcomes.