An effective and novel method for teaching applied facial anatomy and related procedural skills to esthetic physicians

Background: An understanding of facial anatomy is crucial for the safe practice of nonsurgical facial esthetic procedures. Contextual learning, aided with instructional design, enhances the trainees’ overall learning experience and retention, and makes a positive impact on the performance of procedural skills. The present study aimed to develop a teaching approach based on Bloom’s taxonomy involving cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning domains. Materials and methods: The practicability of Assess & Aware, Demonstrate, Decode, Act & Accomplish, Perform, Teach & Test (ADDAPT), a new approach to teaching applied facial anatomy and procedural skills to esthetic physicians in a large group setting, was evaluated in this study. Study participants were from two cohorts (n=124) who underwent 2 days of applied anatomy training in Singapore. Pre- and post-course multiple choice questions and objective structured practical examination were conducted to measure the effectiveness and applicability of the teaching model. Expert raters, table demonstrators, and participants rated the steps involved in the ADDAPT model on an 11-point Likert scale. Results: Pre- and post-course evaluation mean scores for multiple choice questions were 17.32 (SD ±3.36) and 22.61 (SD ±1.77) and for objective structured practical examination were 24.53 (SD ±4.63) and 43.57 (SD ±5.35), respectively (P<0.001). Inter-rater agreement, expressed as the intraclass correlation coefficient, was 0.91 (95% CI: 0.62–0.98) for expert raters and 0.90 (95% CI: 0.78–0.97) for table demonstrators, which reflects the real strength of sound educational practice. The trainees well accepted the model and found the sessions intellectually stimulating. Trainees’ feedback stated that the learning experience was enhanced by the repeated observation and constructive feedback provided by the tutors. Conclusion: The ADDAPT model is practical to instruct a large group of trainees in clinical anatomy and procedural skill training. This approach to instructional design may be feasible and transferable to other areas of psychomotor skill training in medical education.