Clinical Biochemistry Reports- Effective Tools for Early clinical Exposure in Improving the Interpretation Skills of First MBBS Students

Abstract

BACKGROUND Learning clinical biochemistry has a lot of importance in understanding the clinical subjects which are taught later. Enhancing the interpretation skills of biochemical lab reports helps students in learning the clinical diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of a disease. It also provides platform for early clinical exposure and motivates student centered learning. METHODS Pre and post learning outcomes on interpretation skills of Liver Function Test (LFT) were undertaken. Totally 134/147 students participated & were assessed for interpretation skills with 9 LFT reports. Small group teaching comprised of one faculty for 30 students. LFT was taken as didactic lecture and case-history-based learning; interpretation of LFT reports was discussed. After 2 weeks, clinical biochemistry reports and Biochemistry Test Request Forms (TRF) of OP and IP with brief clinical history were provided to the students. Pre and post-test scoring was done, and students' feedback perception was also obtained. RESULTS The residual knowledge for interpretation of LFT after didactic lecture and casehistory-based learning was incorrectly done by >50% of the students. Interpretation skill was lowest for Newborn LFT (18/134). Clinical biochemistry reports were effective in enhancing student's interpretation skills with p value <0.05. Student's interpretation skills of normal/abnormal LFT improved from 28 to 72%. Students agreed that this session motivated them for further learning and selfassessment. CONCLUSIONS Multiple ways of teaching and learning assessment methods should be adopted to understand the clinical relevance of laboratory investigations for improving the interpretation skills among undergraduate medical students.