Effectiveness of Integrated Teaching Module among Final Year Medical students

Abstract

Background: Didactic lectures and the current practice of teaching in Medical colleges has many limitations. Correlation and integration of knowledge into practice becomes difficult in the absence of integrated teaching at appropriate levels in medical curriculum.Aim: To assess the effectiveness of the vertical integrated teaching method among the final year MBBS students and to study the attitude towards integrated teaching. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective study conducted among 102 final year MBBS students at a tertiary care medical college hospital in South India. The teaching was implemented by the active participation of faculty from the departments of Physiology, Pathology and General Medicine on a single topic. Students' knowledge about the subject before and after the session was evaluated by a questionnaire of 20 questions (Pre-test and Post-test). The mean score before and after the session was compared using the paired't' test. The students were also asked to give their feedback about the usefulness of this method in improving their knowledge.Results: The mean scores before and after the session were 8.8± 2.87 and 16.88±1.23 (p value < 0.001). Majority of the students (97.1%) opined the need for integrated teaching to be a part of medical curriculum. Most of them (54.9%) felt the need for integrated teaching to be conducted monthly. On self-grading the knowledge on a scale of 1 to 10 before and after the session, the mean scores were 4.73±1.84 and 7.83±1.86 respectively (p value < 0.001). Conclusion: The integrated teaching was found to be an effective method of teaching. Medical students had a positive attitude towards integrated teaching.