Abstract

Background: Pre-clinical electives were introduced by the National Medical Commission for competency-based undergraduate Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor Of Surgery program during phase 3-part 1 to provide the learners with an opportunity to gain immersive experience in a particular stream, with the objective to provide learner with opportunities for diverse learning and lateral thinking. The impact of these learning experiences is not available as it was introduced for the 1st time in Indian Medical Colleges.

Aims and Objectives: The present research aims to analyze and evaluate the outcome of the electives in terms of students’ satisfaction (knowledge and skills), teaching and learning methodology, assessment methodology, workload demand, and utility.

Materials and Methods: It was a questionnaire-based (Google form) cross-sectional study conducted among phase 3-part 1 student after completion of elective.

Results: A total of 187 students out of 191 participated in the research. 97.9% (183) were satisfied with the duration, and 79.7% (149) said that the learning objective was useful for their learning experience (topic). 82.3% (154) said that they were allowed to think independently about the topic. 78.9% (147) were satisfied with the assessment components of the elective. 44 (23.5%) felt that it required a low workload, whereas 143 (76.5%) felt that it required a high workload. 28% felt that it should be practically oriented, 20% felt that it should be done after 2nd year, and 20% felt that there should be rotation for multiple topics.

Conclusion: Electives are a good opportunity to gain multi-dimensional knowledge and skills in a particular stream. It gives opportunity to explore more than one topic to augment future study.

Key words: Elective; Education; Curriculum; Medical Student; Undergraduate; Pre-clinical; Paraclinical; Assessment; Satisfaction