BACKGROUND
The secondary-to-tertiary education transition is a significant milestone in the students’ academic journey, which is characterized by multiple stressors. Although this crucial transition has been repetitively explored, the concept of proactively intervening to support this transition is still novel.
OBJECTIVE
In the current study, we investigate the efficacy of an online Multi-dimensional Resilience Building Intervention (MRBI) and analyse the association between the students' proficiency of selected skill sets and their academic performance over time.
METHODS
A retrospective longitudinal study was conducted on one cohort of undergraduate medical students. The students were offered an online learning intervention around a selection of four skill sets during the first curricular year of an undergraduate Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) program. Deidentified data, related to the students' proficiency in the four selected skill sets and the students’ academic performance: Grade-Point-Average, were retrieved. The data was analysed using SPSS for Windows version 27.0.
RESULTS
Out of the 63 admitted students, 28 participated in the offered intervention. The correlational analysis showed how an increase in the overall score of skill sets proficiency was significantly associated with Year 1 cGPA but independent of Year 2 cGPA. The performance of the students seemed to be not associated with their proficiency scores in each of the selected skill sets, independently.
CONCLUSIONS
Developing purposefully selected skill sets holds the potential of facilitating the secondary-to-tertiary education transition of medical students and improving their academic performance. As the medical student progresses, the acquired skills need to be continuously reinforced and effectively built upon.