To explore the application effect of the BOPPPS model integrated with multimedia surgical videos in the clinical teaching of minimally invasive esophageal carcinoma surgery, clarify the auxiliary role of this teaching mode in enhancing students’ mastery of key concepts and provide practical basis for the optimization of teaching strategies in thoracic surgery.

Students from two parallel classes of clinical medicine majors from the School of Medicine of Sun Yat-sen University were selected as the research objects, and the students were divided into the experimental group and the control group respectively. This study employed a single-blind design, and all participating students were unaware of their assigned group. Minimally invasive esophageal carcinoma surgery thematic teaching with the core focus on "lymph node dissection in radical esophageal carcinoma surgery" and "endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD)" was carried out in both groups. The control group adopted the traditional teaching model, which combined anatomical atlases with theoretical explanations. The experimental group applied the BOPPPS teaching model with the aids of surgical videos, with the course designed into pre-class, in-class and post-class stages. Pre-class quizzes were used to identify students’ knowledge weaknesses on esophageal carcinoma TNM staging, related treatments and lymph node dissection. During the course, additional multimedia videos of lymph node dissection in radical esophageal carcinoma surgery and ESD surgery were introduced to assist teaching by dynamically demonstrating the surgical operation process, anatomical structure and key operational points. After the course, students from both the experimental group and the control group took a unified post-class test, an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) after one week, and another post-class test after one month to evaluate their mastery of knowledge of esophageal carcinoma TNM staging, related treatments and lymph node dissection. At the same time, anonymous questionnaires were used to collect feedback on teaching satisfaction.

There were 70 students each in both the experimental group and the control group. Short-term teaching effectiveness evaluation: the scores of the post-class quiz in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.01). In addition, the post-class quiz scores of the experimental group were significantly higher than the pre-class quiz scores (P<0.01). Furthermore, the scores of the experimental group in the TNM staging and lymph node dissection sections of the post-class quiz were significantly higher than those in the pre-class quiz (P<0.01), but there was no significant difference in the ESD section scores between pre-class and post-class quizzes (P=0.47). Objective comprehensive evaluation: the OSCE scores of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group (P=0.015). Long-term teaching effectiveness evaluation: the quiz scores of the experimental group one month after class were significantly higher than those of the control group (P<0.01), but neither in the experimental group nor the control group was there a significant difference between the post-class quiz scores and the quiz scores one month after class. Teaching satisfaction survey: Most students in the experimental group affirmed the teaching model, believing that it had positive impact on helping them master the theoretical knowledge comprehensively and was conducive to constructing a systematic knowledge system.

The application of multimedia surgical videos combined with the BOPPPS model in minimally invasive esophageal carcinoma surgery teaching can significantly enhance students’ comprehension and mastery of complex surgical procedures, leading to markedly improved teaching outcomes. This approach provides a valuable reference for innovating and optimizing clinical teaching models in thoracic surgery.