an analytic study of knowledge retention at different time intervals among junior residents following recapitulation of presented slides silently at the end of teaching session

Background & objective: facilitators commonly ponder how to effectively conclude a learning session, and there are no clear answers. this novel study analyzes the impact of silent recapitulation of presented slides at session end on immediate and short-term knowledge retention among junior residents (jr) tested at different time intervals.materials & methods: this single-center, prospective, non-randomized interventional study was conducted at midnapore medical college in india. fifteen postgraduate jr of anaesthesiology attended 14 knowledge-based teaching sessions, while 22 jr participated in the subsequent 14 sessions. teaching sessions were allocated in a sequential, non-randomized manner, with 50% of sessions ending with a silent recapitulation of powerpoint slides following take-home messages (thm) (study group, n = 14 sessions), while the other 50% of sessions ended with a discussion of thm only (control group, n = 14 sessions). all participating jrs were assessed with five different multiple choice questions (mcqs) each on the first and seventh day after sessions and again at internal assessment (ia) after 2 months. data analysis was performed using paired t-tests for within-group comparisons, unpaired two-tailed t-tests, and anova tests for between-group comparisons.results: the mcq scores on day 1 were significantly higher in the study group compared to the control group (82.0 vs. 65.2, p < 0.00). however, mean mcq scores on day 7 in both groups were significantly different from day 1 mcq scores but similar to each other (71.2 and 73.5, p = 0.29). the scores at ia improved from day 7 mcq scores in both the study group (71.2 vs. 82.0, p < 0.05) and the control group (73.5 vs. 83.2, p < 0.05).conclusion: for jrs, there is significant short-term retention of knowledge after a silent recapitulation of slides at the end of a session compared to the control group.