Problem-based learning as a tool in Anesthesia PG teaching - A cross sectional study

Background: The teaching curriculum in anesthesia usually involves lecture-based traditional teaching and manikin simulations. Case based discussions are one are the extensively practiced PBL methods of postgraduate teaching in anesthesia. To this reason, we evaluated the effectiveness of problem-based learning methodology in anesthesia postgraduate teaching in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was done to all postgraduate students in the department of anesthesia. The survey contains six questions, particularly intended to obtain the PG students view on the effectiveness of PBL in CBD, which was adopted from the Melveetil S et al study and Barrow’s rating of meeting the educational objectives. All the students were given the questionnaire, and response was recorded in the form of yes/no. The questionnaire was collected anonymously and entered into Microsoft Excel software for calculating descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation (SD) and percentages. Results: A total of 32 anaesthesia PG students participated in this study. The results of the survey were based on student’s opinion of effectiveness of PBL with CBD suggested modifications. 28% accepted that they never formulate the learning objectives before the case discussions. 68% agreed that the teaching materials/references or/resources were never shared among the students before the case discussion. 70% of the students agreed that content of the cased based discussion was distributed but it never contained the direction of PBL. 87.5% participants accepted the fact that in their CBD only real patients were incorporated. Conclusion: The majority of the students, in spite of their poor knowledge in understanding PBL such as the formulation of objectives, facilitation skills, and communication on the direction of PBL. Students expressed interest to learn case based discussions.