Teaching Visual Acuity Assessment To Medical Undergraduates

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION Visual acuity assessment is a simple but extremely important examination in ophthalmology. This aids examination and diagnosis of common eye diseases. This is done using standardized Snellen’s chart1.OBJECTIVE To teach visual acuity assessment to undergraduates by various Teaching-learning methods,Obtaining perception of faculties and students for these.,To identify the method most preferred by most of the undergraduates.METHODOLOGYA prospective experimental study.Sample size = 100After IRB approval, the study was carried out during the ophthalmic term of third MBBS students. Four teaching methods were power point presentation, role play, video clip show and clinical demonstration. Evaluation was done by pre-post test in form of standardized validated MCQs (cognitive domain) and DOPS (directly observed practical skill) with checklist (for psychomotor and affective domain).RESULTS Statistically significant improvement in learning of students observed from pre-post test. Mean value of marks improved from 5.64 to 8.94 and SD value 1.307 to 1.052 with p value 0.0001 .Student’s feedback was suggestive of increase in confidence in skill with preferred method being clinical demonstration. Faculty feedback was positive with suggestion for such modules for other topics as well.CONCLUSION Learning improved with multiple teaching-learning methods. More than 95% faculty and students agree with the teaching-learning methods.LIMITATIONLong term results could not be evaluated.