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.
Keywords
Effectiveness - Integrated teaching - Medical Students
