Perceptions of students and faculty about conventional learning and community-oriented medical education.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the perceptions of the students and faculty to the conventional lecture and practical-based learning (LPBL) with community-oriented-Medical Education (COME).


METHODS
Descriptive longitudinal study based on evaluations of two different methods.


METHODS
Dow Medical College, Karachi, March to June 2001.


METHODS
All the 364 students who were admitted to Dow Medical College in the year 2001, were taught for eight weeks by the conventional lecture and practical-based learning (LPBL) method. The perceptions of students and 63 faculty members to LPBL was found by a 14-item questionnaire (containing 11 questions on the Likert Scale and 3 open-ended questions). A four-week field trial of COME was carried out during which all other teaching was suspended. Similar questionnaires about COME were repeated for the 301 students (now present) and 63 faculty members. The responses for each question for the LPBL and COME questionnaires were compared by the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test.


RESULTS
Students and Faculty found COME significantly better (p<0.05) than LPBL in promoting community awareness, empathy, group interaction, life-long self-study skills, clinical relevance and not solely exam-oriented. The students also found it promotional for interest, retention of information, problem solving and communication skills. The faculty felt that clinical skills and research methodologies were learnt better by COME. Both, the students and the faculty found no significant difference by either method in understanding the topic or in the importance of the tutor's expertise. COME was perceived as more resource-intensive in terms of time, teachers and space. It was suggested that core lectures should continue side by side with COME.


CONCLUSIONS
Both, students and faculty found COME a more clinically and socially relevant way of studying medicine than LPBL.
Khan
Imrana
I
Department of Biochemistry, Dow Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Fareed
Aslam
A
D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010465:Perception; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000379:methods*; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*