Multidisciplinary case-based small group discussions to integrate basic medical sciences with clinical situations

Abstract

ObjectivesIntegration of the basic medical sciences with clinical medicine motivates medical students by showing how the fundamental concepts they have learned will come into their future practice. In this context, we created clinical integration sessions (CIS) in our first-year medical curriculum.MethodsThe instructors of different disciplines wrote the clinical scenarios together. The scenarios were discussed in five sessions with 39 first-year students. The first session’s scenario consisted of four brief “anemia” cases. The next four sessions included a single case, according to the feedback of the students. Students formed groups of 7–8 participants. In the first 2 h, the scenarios were discussed in the groups and questions were answered by the students. In the third hour, the instructors answered the questions together with the students. After the first CIS, written feedback obtained from the students via a survey.ResultsThe survey provided positive feedback on the benefits of active learning within small group discussions, and most of the students thought that their background was sufficient to solve the cases, with some literature search.ConclusionThe scenarios, which provide multidisciplinary integration of basic medical sciences and clinical medicine, can be useful educational materials.

Correlation of First-Year Medical Students’ Performance in Case-Based Small-Group Discussions with Overall Academic Performance in the Department of Medical Physiology

“…Students also have positive perceptions toward small-group effectiveness, particularly in learning experience and teamwork (Sahu et al, 2018). They learn how to apply the principles of basic medical sciences to clinical medicine, which motivates them for further learning (Hadimani, 2014;Naveed et al, 2017;Semin, 2020).…”

Using Project-based Learning to Enhance Curricular Integration and Relevance of Basic Medical Sciences in Pre-clerkship Years

“…Semin et al (2018) implemented multidisciplinary case-based small group discussions to integrate basic medical sciences with clinical situations for 39 students in 5 body systems and found that 62% of students find the integrated cases useful for their learning. 12 They carried out discussions on 3 hours sessions and without enough prior knowledge for students and set the outcomes for each case. Our study was carried out on a larger number of participants (694), and students were the main drivers of their learning process, and they had previous knowledge from all disciplines and we derived the outcomes from the curriculum that is required to be evaluated and improved to report the deficiencies present and avoid confusing students with them.…”