Original Research Article
Year: 2018 | Month: January | Volume: 8 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 60-67
Radiological Knowledge of the 4th Year Medical Students before and after the Clinical Rotation in Radiology
Krassimira Ivanova Missankova1, Alexander Alexandrov Missankov2
1Lecturer in Radiology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Botswana,
2Professor of Anatomical Sciences, Department of Bio-Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Botswana
Corresponding Author: Alexander Alexandrov Missankov
ABSTRACT
For centuries, basic medical sciences and clinical disciplines have been taught by a traditional method. Recently developed problem-based learning (PBL) method was introduced as an alternative to the traditional teaching. Despite some advantages of the PBL, traditional teaching is still widely used throughout the world. What is more, it was reported that not all subjects in medical education should be taught by the PBL. The hot dispute about the advantages and disadvantages of the two teaching methods, resulted in the introduction of a hybrid method, which was a combination between the traditional and the PBL methods. There were a number of papers that reported about the under-representation of imaging in the medical curricula, which resulted in a low level of knowledge. The aim of the present study was an attempt to establish the level of the theoretical and practical radiological knowledge, by the 4-th year medical students, before and after the clinical rotation in radiology. At the new Medical Faculty, University of Botswana, a PBL curriculum was introduced. The subject of radiology, however, was taught by a traditional method, which was incorporate into the PBL curriculum. The results indicated that at the pre-rotation MCQ test, the class-I (year 2014) and class- II(year 2015) of the 4-th year medical students showed a good level of theoretical radiological, knowledge, by scoring a mean mark of 63% and 64%, respectively. At the post-rotation MCQ test, the same students scored 80% and 73%, respectively. In addition, the class – I students improved their theoretical knowledge by 17%, while class-II did so by 9%. At the end of the year, at the practical examination (OSCE), the two classes of the 4-th year students failed the examination dramatically, since only 5 students (10%) and 4 students (9%), passed the practical examination (OSCE). It was concluded that, during the pre- clinical years(phase-I) the students tend to accumulate theoretical knowledge only, however, the 5 days of radiological clinical rotation appeared insufficient for the students to acquire a bit of clinical knowledge.
Key words: radiological, knowledge, 4-th year, medical, students