Students' perception regarding medical education in Nepal.

BACKGROUND: Medical schools and medical education look different as we advance into the 21st century. Nepal has seen a dramatic increase in the number of medical schools/colleges in the last decade. Most schools practice traditional teaching method while others are implementing problem based learning (PBL). It is important to explore the current advances and practices in medical education to meet the needs of the health services of the country. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study is to explore the students' perception regarding present status of medical education in Nepal and provide recommendations to address future needs. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study design of the present research was descriptive and exploratory type. Structured Questionnaire was used to assess the students' perception relating to different aspects of medical education. A total of 24 students studying in the final year of MBBS from six medical colleges were selected randomly. RESULTS: The traditional teaching/learning methodologies have been prevailing in the medical schools of the country. PBL suits many objectives of self directed learning (SDL) because students learn to reason and deduce facts and figures rather than rote learning. For the success of PBL and SDL students require learning resources and as per our findings although 71% of the students were satisfied with library facilities 54% were dissatisfied with computer resources. Community based approaches have been focused in the curriculum of all the medical schools of Nepal. About public health and community medicine teaching 86% of the students reported to be appropriate, of which 18% actually thought it was excessive. About the teaching of evidence based medicine (EBM), 50% students felt it was adequate and other half thought it was inadequate. Majority of the students i.e. 62% of the students also felt that the care of ambulatory patients was as well covered as the care of hospitalized patients. The areas of clinical practice which the students felt were inadequate included: nutrition (71%), geriatrics (70%), end of life care (71%), palliative care (67%), long term health care (70%), continuity of care (70%), ethical decision making (56%) and patient follow up (50%). In spite of completing their training, 25% felt they were not confident that they had acquired the clinical skills required to begin the residency program. As much as 60% felt they did not receive information about specialties and alternative medical careers. About 75% of the students had the feeling that medical profession will not be financially rewarding; 80% felt it would not be as respectable; 99% felt it would be more scientifically challenging. CONCLUSION: The medical education of Nepal is still guided by the notion of the traditional approaches. The teaching methods should come up as per the advancement in contemporary medical education. The training needs to be more structured and focused in practical reality than only feeding students with theoretical knowledge.

Faculty opinion survey following attendance to teacher training workshop in Kathmandu Medical College.

INTRODUCTION: With the growing awareness of the importance of teaching and learning in Universities, the need to improve professional qualities in teachers has been identified. AIM AND OBJECTIVES: This paper describes the outcome of the impact of teacher training workshops on faculty- teaching performance. METHODOLOGY: A total of 30 faculties who had undergone teacher training in the one-year period were included in the study. Survey questionnaire were distributed and all the forms were returned. RESULTS: All (100%) respondents found the teacher training to be very useful/useful for improvement of teaching skills. A total of 76.66% said that the skills learnt in the workshop were very applicable, 80% perceived changes in students classroom behaviour and found their lecture to be more participatory and interactive. As for their own change in behaviour, 66.66% respondents experienced better interaction with the students in classroom. DISCUSSION: The overall impression of the training was very positive. Future studies should include student feed back and classroom teaching observation for faculty teaching evaluation. We also need to utilise the feed back information obtained in this article, to further improve the strength of the future teacher training workshops. The future workshops should include sessions in problem-based learning and follow up refresher courses.

MBBS student selection: search for proper criteria.

It is accepted that selecting students for the MBBS course is fairly difficult and not totally effective. This article documents the process undertaken at Kathmandu Medical College (KMC) with reference to previous attempts and suggestions for the future.

Review of admission of MBBS students at KMC.

This is an account regarding the intake of the 7th batch of MBBS students at Kathmandu Medical College (KMC) for the academic session 2003-2004. A total of 257 admission forms had been issued to Nepali students. Of these, 252 admission forms were filled up and were submitted to KMC together with the completed questionnaire by the Nepali students. Seven students (approximately 2.7%) did not attend interview. After the interview, out of the 245 interviewed students, the names of only 50 were brought out in the 1st list for admission. The paper presents the system for admission of MBBS students and has made recommendations for future action.

A longitudinal follow up of neurodevelopment of high risk newborns--a comparison of Amiel-Tison's method with Bayley Scales of Infant Development.

The neurodevelopment of 42 high risk babies and 7 control babies was assessed longitudinally till the age of 12 months by using two different methods. The method of neurological evaluation described by Amiel-Tison was used, and the results compared with those of a standard developmental test, the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. The Amiel-Tison method was found to be a sensitive test for picking up abnormalities till the age of 9 months, but lost its advantage over the Bayley Scales at 12 months. Besides, the test was quick, simple to learn and did not need a special kit or a trained psychologist and was hence found to be a good screening method.