jiafm, 2010-32(2) april-june. - forensic medicine

ISSN 0971-0973 J Indian Acad Forensic Med, 32(2)Original research paperNovel Ideas and Approaches to Learning Medical Sciences*Dr. Chandra Prakash, **Dr Bhavana Srivastava, ***Dr Sanjay Gaur, ****Dr Ajay Kumar SinhaAbstractMedicine is a progressive discipline for medical students who are going to be future doctors. Therefore todetermine the opinion of students regarding the 2 nd Professional M.B.B.S. subject, teaching methodology, reforms tobe introduced, computer and Internet use and its application in teaching learning process this study was done.475 students were given a questionnaire which consisted of 2-5 options. Questionnaire consisted of 2 parts.First part was about demographic characteristic, second part was about the subject 465 students in the age group 19-24 yr with male female ration 1:1, mostly from northern India were included in the study. Forensic Medicineemerged as the favorite subject followed by Pharmacology, Pathology and Microbiology. 40.86% (190) wantedmore of clinically oriented classes, problem based learning and use of audiovisual aids. 72.04% (335) wantedintegrated teaching curriculum. So in our opinion we can adopt a curriculum which is clinically oriented, integrated,revised pattern with computer application and internet use. This will make the teaching learning process in themedical sciences more effective and relevant to the health of the society.Key Words: Problem Based Learning, Integrated Curriculum, Teaching Methodology, Computer, InternetIntroduction:Medicine is a progressive discipline formedical students who are going to he future doctors.It is important that medical students have properorientation towards signs and symptoms, cases offoul play, various forms of suspicious or unnaturaldeath, pharmacological principles, and toxicologicalknowledge and apply them in the practice ofmedicine. [2]In many medical colleges the teaching isvery teacher and student centered, with emphasis onacquiring detail knowledge about the signs andsymptoms and that does not train the students onclinical aspects, therapeutics and hidden evidences. Inthe past decade or so a number of educationprogrammes have been developed in differentinstitution.Problem Based Learning (PBL) has beenwidely used and some medical colleges havecompletely switched over to PBL while others usePBL in conjunction with Lecture Base Learning(LBL). [3]Corresponding Author:**Associate Professor, Department of PharmacologyUFHT Medical College, Haldwani (U.K.)Email: bhavanaufht@ yahoo.co.in* Associate Professor, Forensic Medicine***Assistant Professor, Pharmacology****Assistant Professor, AnaesthesiologyAt the newly established U.F.H.T. MedicalCollege, Haldwani, India, we have 475 students whohave gone through 2 nd professional. Teaching takesplaces through didactic lectures, PBL, spotting, groupdiscussion, seminars, post mortem examination,histo-pathological examination, and demonstration ofprocedures, poison detection and its management.Each subject has 2-3 lectures and 1-2practical sessions of two hours each every week.Students are divided into small batches of 20 andthen further divided into groups of five. [4]Each group is given a specific case and thendiscussion on important aspect is done. The studentsolve problem using the concept taught in lecture andwith the help of books from the library. A projectwork is allotted to each student and they are expectedto submit it within two months based on case reports,postmortem examination histo-pathologicalexamination, poisoning pharmacovigilance,toxicology, adverse drug reactions etc.The conventional undergraduate practicalare deficient and suggestions regarding clinicallyuseful procedures and research orientation have beenemphasized by the clinician experts and medicalcouncil of India.To obtain opinion and suggestion of the students onthe teaching and learning, to make appropriatechanges in the methodology and introduce reformsthis study was done.124