Effectiveness of a Teaching Module using Simulated Patient, Photographs and Case Scenario in Wound Certificate Preparation by under-graduate Students

Abstract

Many mistakes inadvertently made during preparation of wound certificate by doctors could ultimately lead to a miscarriage of justice. As a primary first contact doctor, every Indian Medical Graduate needs to be conversant in the scientific principles of preparation of wound certificate to meet legal requirements. Wound certificates are one of the most compelling medicolegal documents that have for reaching implications in legal trails of homicides, assault and civil injury cases. It is necessary to strengthen the teaching of wound certificate preparation. This study was conducted with an objective to find out the effectiveness of a designated teaching module when compared with conventional method of lecture class. An interventional study done at Department of Forensic Medicine, in a Medical College with whole batch of Phase II MBBS students. Adesigned teaching module with simulated patient, photographs and case scenario was prepared to teach wound certificate. Students were divided into 6 major groups and each group again sub-classified into two; the study group was taught using teaching module and the control group using conventional teaching learning methods. Performance of students was assessed after the teaching schedule and statistically compared using unpaired 't' test. Students taught using teaching module performed better compared to students in a conventional method of teaching where the difference was found to be statistically significant.