PERCEPTION OF MEDICAL STUDENTS ABOUT BED SIDE TEACHING IN GOVERNMENT MEDICAL COLLEGE OF NORTH COASTAL ANDHRA PRADESH

Background: Bedside teaching is the core teaching strategy for acquiring clinical skills in the Undergraduate medical curriculum. The growing concern among medical fraternity and students that the teaching learning methodology in bed side clinics is not optimal. Aim:To know the perceptions of final MBBS students on bed side clinical teaching. Methodology : An observational cross sectional study was carried out in Government medical college in Visakhapatnam among Final year part -2Under graduate students. A purposive sample of 120 final MBBS students was taken during the months of September and October of 2019. A validated structured questionnaire modified to an Indian scenario containing questions to rate various aspects such as learning climate, Focus on student learning, Developing and delivering a tutorial, and overall impression of the teaching on a linkert scale of grading 1 to5 was used. It was validated by doing a pilot study and applying cronbach's alpha [0.89] which is significant. Students were given a self-administered questionnaire using KOBO TOOLBOX & COLLECT. Consent from willing participants is obtained through the Google forms platform and analysis was done using Excel and SPSS DEMO VERSION 17. Results: Out of 120 students,30 students each from the department of medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics participated in the study. Mean score of domains was high among students posted in medicine department and low among students posted in pediatric department. Difference between mean scores among four departments under learning climate (p=0.002), focus (p=0.018) and developing tutorial (p=0.013) domains was found Statistically Significant. Conclusion: The overall perception of final MBBS students on bed side teaching is ranging between average to good. Clinical teachers should be moving towards excellence and not just to be stopped at good.