Comparison of performance of undergraduate medical students trained in conventional and integrated curriculums

Abstract

Introduction: Foundation University Medical College is one of the few institutions in Pakistan that have developed an Integrated Modular Teaching Program. This mode of teaching is a novel addition to our conventional system and needs evaluation.The objective of this study was to compare the overall cumulative results of undergraduates from (Group A/2015) conventional (old) with (Group B/2016) integrated (new curriculum) final professional examinations and to correlate the overall cumulative results of final professional examinations with their admission test results. Materials And Methods: We compared the final professional examination results of Group A and Group B undergraduates. Both the groups had identical final examinations in terms of pattern, subjects, examiners, and duration. In addition, a measure of central tendency and standard deviation was calculated and made comparisons between entry and final professional examination results. Finally, the t-test was used to compare the theoretical and practical scores. In addition, it established the reliability and validity of the results. Results: The overall performance of undergraduates who trained on integrated curriculum (97.0%) was better than that of undergraduates who had trained on conventional curriculum (85.2%). Comparison between the various components of the professional examinations using the ANOVA test also revealed that the same group of undergraduates performed better with P < 0.05, which is 0.002, which showed significant results. Cronbach's alpha for overall performance was 0.957, whereas for the theoretical and practical examinations, it was 0.792 and 0.897, respectively. Conclusion: The results revealed that the undergraduates who had trained on integrated curriculum had improved performance in the final professional examinations both in theory and practical. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Medical Knowledge, Practice-based learning and improvement, Systems-based practice, and Interpersonal and communication skills.