Evaluation of the effectiveness of early clinical exposure in learning clinical examination skills among preclinical students

Abstract

Introduction: The Vision 2015 of Medical Council of India states that the Indian medical graduate (IMG) should have the necessary competencies (Knowledge, Skills and Attitude) to assume his or her role as a health care provider to the people of India and the World. Early Clinical Exposure (ECE) is one of the measures taken by MCI to enact its vision. Objectives: This study was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of ECE in learning clinical examination skills among preclinical students and to explore the perspectives of ECE among the students and faculty. Materials and Methods: Present study was conducted in the department of Physiology, Govt. Thiruvarur Medical College, Thiruvarur on 99 medical students. After obtaining informed, written consent pretest questionnaire was given to the study participants. After obtaining informed, written consent pre-test questionnaire was given to the study participants. After that students were allocated into Group 1 (n=49) and Group 2 (n=50) by simple random technique by lottery method. Group 1 students were trained on clinical examination of anemia in medicine ward (Early Clinical Exposure) and Group 2 students were trained on clinical examination of anemia in clinical physiology laboratory (Control). At the end of the session both groups were assessed by Post-test questionnaire and Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Crossing over of the batches was done in the next session for training of clinical examination of jaundice. Feedback was obtained from the students (n=99) and faculty members involved in this (n=7). Results: There was a statistically significant difference present between the post test scores of Group 1 and Group 2 in anemia and jaundice (p Conclusion: Results of the present study justify the need of Early Clinical Exposure to teach clinical examination skills to first year medical students when compared to the traditional teaching method. Keywords: Early clinical exposure, First year medical stu