Mar 2025 - Article Published in The Clinical Teacher

The Clinical Teacher

Jakub Radzikowski's paper describing the teaching of clinical skills to medics at Imperial's 'Medical Kitchen' is published in The Clinical Teacher

J.L. Radzikowski, N. Houghton, C.S. Chacon, O. Armstrong-Scott, J. Youssef, A.C. Spivey, A. Dharmarajah, and R. Kneebone, ‘Medical Kitchen: Transdisciplinary Clinical Skills Training’ The Clinical Teacher, 2025, 22, e70065. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/tct.70065

FIGURE 2 - The surgical kitchen kit. The top row of images illustrates the practice of basic surgical knots using a banana, a method employedduring the online sessions to simulate tissue handling. Progressing to the second and third rows, participants are seen advancing their techniqueby performing basic surgical knots on a silicone suture pad, emphasising the integration of effective communication skills throughout the process.The final image captures an in-person session with medical students at Imperial College London, where these skills are applied in a collaborativelearning environment.

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.