AIM To explore the effect of direct observation of improved clinical operation skills (DOPS) as a formative assessment tool in the practical teaching of cardiovascular clinical skills courses for professional master’s degree postgraduates.

METHODS The subjects included in this study were Grade 2019 and Grade 2020 professional master’s degree postgraduates majoring in clinical medicine in Air Force Medical University, who were divided into a control group (113 subjects) and an experimental group (115 subjects). The control group received traditional practical teaching. For the experimental group of students, we adopted improved DOPS as a formative assessment and feedbacks were collected. The application effect of the improved DOPS was evaluated by comparing the examination results and analyzing the results of the questionnaire survey.

RESULTS Among the single assessment indexes of DOPS, the score of "help-seeking skill ability" was the lowest and the evaluation grade was "lower than the basic standard". The scores of "indication mastery" and "skill operation completion ability" were the highest. In terms of test scores, the test scores of the experimental group (92 ± 6 points) were significantly higher than those of the control group (81 ± 5 points) (P<0.05). The results of questionnaire survey showed that the self-rating scores of the experimental group were higher than those of the control group in improving self-learning ability, clinical thinking ability, practical operation ability, professional quality self-rating, and communication and cooperation ability (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION The application of modified DOPS is beneficial to improve cardiovascular clinical operation skills and learning ability of professional master’s degree postgraduates, as well as the quality of practical teaching, and it is worthy of widespread application.