Contribution of integrated teaching in the improvement of an undergraduate ophthalmology curriculum

Abstract

PurposeConventional medical curriculum is the rule of medical teaching in Greek Medical Schools. Medical students are often taught irrelevant details with little or no reference to their potential clinical significance. Alternatively, integrated teaching warrants that the complete teaching material is covered by each faculty member not considering areas of personal expertise. The aim of this study was to evaluate the implementation of integrated teaching in ophthalmic training.MethodsThe main outcome measures of this retrospective study were a) comments and recommendations made anonymously by the fifth-year medical students in the evaluation questionnaires filled in at the end of their training, and b) scores obtained by students in their final examination at the end of their training in the 2nd Department of Ophthalmology as part of the core Curriculum of the Medical School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The latter outcome was analyzed with respect to the implementation of integrated teaching.ResultsThe score obtained by students in the final examination, which is an objective outcome measure, increased significantly after the implementation of integrated teaching. The final grade (scores out of 10) of students who were trained with the integrated system (6.17±1.67, mean ± standard deviation) was significantly higher compared to those (5.52±2.20) trained with the conventional system (P<0.001). The positive outcome of this process was evident as there was a significant increase in the number of students satisfied with the teaching process compared to previous academic years.ConclusionBased on the experience of eight academic years and as a result of interactive assessment process our department has modified its medical student teaching process from conventional to integrated; all teaching staff members are involved in the teaching process, while students are divided in small groups. In conclusion, integrated teaching in small student groups appears to be an efficient teaching method (for both theoretical and clinical skills) of ophthalmic training for medical students.

Assessment of Ophthalmology Teaching and its Impact on the Choice of Future Specialties Among Medical Students of Jazan University

“…Li et al demonstrated that introducing additional ophthalmology lectures to third-year undergraduates greatly boosted their knowledge and influenced their motivation to teach [ 28 ]. Second, the contribution of the entire teaching team enables the integration of fundamental scientific knowledge and clinical practice for small student groups [ 29 ]. Thirdly, training techniques, such as didactic lectures, case presentations, and PowerPoint presentations, may have considerable benefits with variable efficacy outcomes [ 30 , 31 ].…”

A Required Ophthalmology Rotation: Providing Medical Students with a Foundation in Eye-Related Diagnoses and Management

“…To our knowledge, there are currently no publications in MedEdPORTAL detailing ophthalmic curricular content for medical students in their clinical years. Available evidenced-based ophthalmology curricula for preclinical and clinical medical students included use of integrated teaching, 11 team-based learning modules, 12 and intensive 1-and 2-day training courses. [13][14][15] While we did not find curricular content similar to our own on MedEdPORTAL, our literature search yielded one related article.…”

Impact of integrated teaching sessions for comprehensive learning and rational pharmacotherapeutics for medical undergraduates

“…[ 2 ] Moreover, students do not achieve a comprehensive understanding and loose clinical relevance of the basic sciences at the time of their clinical training due to a significant diversity of interests, resources, and approaches between different departments while teaching different aspects of a particular topic. [ 3 ] Many innovations and trends in medical education have been undertaken globally in the past few years which include self-directed learning, problem-based learning, integrated teaching, and community orientation. [ 4 ]…”