Evaluation of the teaching strategy of cardiovascular system in a problem-based curriculum: student perception

It is generally acknowledged that an integrated approach to teaching cardiovascular system (CVS) is clinically relevant. However, very little attention has been paid with respect to student perception of teaching CVS in an integrated problem-based curriculum. A questionnaire on the feedback and perception of medical students (n = 60) to their learning experience of CVS exposed early in the problem-based integrated curriculum at the Arabian Gulf University (AGU) was used. The average percentage scores of positive student responses to items related to knowledge was 62.7%, to integration was 87.3%, and to skills was 77.1%. A significant positive correlation was observed among skills and knowledge (r = 0.408, P = 0.002), skills and integration (r = 0.506, P = 0.000), and integration and knowledge (r = 0.294, P = 0.028). The lowest individual percentage score related to knowledge items was given to the role of resource sessions in understanding difficult concepts (32.7%). Interestingly, 90.7% of the students were aware of the presence of gaps in their knowledge. On the other hand, 92.7% of students expressed their satisfaction with the study experience of CVS in the integrated problem-based approach. These results indicate that students overall achieved satisfactory learning outcome during the study of CVS in the problem-based integrated curriculum at AGU. The study also points out issues where improvement and fine tuning of the educational system can take place.