Early clinical exposure on Gout for first year medical undergraduates at a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India- A mixed methods study

Abstract

Background: The department of biochemistry at a tertiary care teaching hospital had the first offline early clinical exposure (ECE) on gout in October 2021 in the aftermath of COVID 19. This paper is based on our experiences of conducting ECE according to Competency Based Medical Education in the classroom. Aim: To share our experiences of conducting ECE in a faculty constrained setting. Methods: This was a mixed methods study. A total of 187 students out of 200 were present on the day of ECE. A pre- and post-test of ten questions on nucleotide metabolism was administered to the students. The subject for the module was a 48-year-old farmer suffering from gout who kindly consented to be a part of the program which was coordinated with the orthopedics department. After the module, the students wrote their reflections in the logbook and also gave their written feedback. Results: The reflections revealed that they felt motivated to study the biochemical aspects of the disease as this helped them understand the clinical picture. The feedback revealed that they preferred having more such ECE sessions. The mean post-test and pre-test scores were 7.7 and 5.6, respectively. Conclusion: ECE improved the students' learning and motivated them to study the subject. The reflection and feedback by students demonstrate that the students were enthusiastic and motivated to participate in the ECE. The objective in disseminating our findings is to share the ECE experiences so that we can standardize the competencies and objectives of common clinical conditions in biochemistry.