ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Our current medical curriculum devotes a large percentage of time to knowledge acquisition by means of didactic lectures. Psychomotor skill acquisition takes a back seat. Certain lifesaving skills like basic life support skill training have not even made an appearance in the current curriculum. Equal time distribution to cognitive and psychomotor skills should be allotted for MBBS trainees, which is a very practical subject. Simulation can prove to be a valuable tool in imparting skill training. The present study aims to evaluate the efficacy of different teaching modalities in imparting lifesaving skills among first-year MBBS students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 33 first-year students who consented to participate. Approval was obtained from the institutional ethics committee. The students were divided into three groups, each undergoing either didactic lecture or animation-based videos or simulation studies. Pretest, posttest, and skills tests were administered to them. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and paired t test were the statistical tests employed using SPSS version 21. RESULTS: The pretest and posttest scores were comparable in the three groups while the improvement in the posttest scores in all the three groups was significant. The skills test was significantly better in the group undergoing simulation training compared to the other groups. CONCLUSION: Didactic, animation, and simulation are all good methods in imparting cognitive knowledge, but simulation is the method of choice in imparting psychomotor skills. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: An overhauling of the medical curriculum to include more skills training to the budding doctors using simulation-based techniques is recommended. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Suseel A, Panchu P, Abraham SV, Varghese S, George T, Joy L. An Analysis of the Efficacy of Different Teaching Modalities in Imparting Adult Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Skills among First-year Medical Students: A Pilot Study. IJCCM 2019;23(11): 509-512.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Medical course requires immense effort by the students to deal with vast curriculum and hence, the need to adopt metacognitive skill to cope up. Diabetes mellitus has an impact on cognition. Metacognition, being a component of cognition, is likely to be affected by diabetes. Children of diabetic parents have demonstrated insulin resistance which may contribute to metacognitive dysfunction. Hence, it is important to focus into the link between family history of diabetes and metacognition. AIM: To evaluate the impact of family history (parents and grandparents) of diabetes mellitus on metacognition in medical students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was a questionnaire based cross-sectional study. Hundred first year medical students were recruited and they filled the Metacognitive Awareness (MA) questionnaire along with the details of the family history of diabetes. The metacognitive awareness questionnaire evaluated MA, its components (metacognitive knowledge and regulation) and their subcomponents. Positive history of diabetes in parents and grandparents were taken into account. The participants were then divided into two groups: with family history of diabetes (n=73) and without family history of diabetes (n=27). The metacognitive awareness and its subcomponents between the two groups were analysed using Student t-test between the groups (with and without family history). Pearson correlation was done to analyse the association between metacognition and family history of diabetes. RESULTS: Metacognitive knowledge (global score) was significantly lower in group with family history of diabetes (10.25±3.01 vs 12.04±3.2, p-value<0.05) as was metacognitive regulation global score (7.08±1.83 vs 7.99±1.36, p-value<0.05). Declarative knowledge and information management showed significant difference. Metacognitive knowledge showed a significant negative correlation with family history of diabetes (correlation coefficient = -0.263, p-value<0.01). CONCLUSION: Students with family history of diabetes had reduced metacognitive awareness. The awareness that metacognitive dysfunction can occur in early age in individuals with family history of diabetes would help us to identify them and device strategies to delay or prevent metacognitive dysfunction.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The relationship between diabetes and hearing loss has been debated for many years. Hyperglycemia appears to have an effect on hearing loss and the proposed mechanisms are microangiopathy, neuropathy or a combination of both. The objective of this study was to evaluate a cross section of hyperglycemic subjects with age- and sex-matched normoglycemic controls with pure tone audiometry and compare the differences. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-one type 2 diabetes mellitus subjects and 41 age- and sex-matched normoglycemic controls were subjected to a pure tone audiometric assessment followed by evaluation of their glycemic status and degree of glycemic control. The resulting data was statistically analyzed. RESULTS: The auditory thresholds in hyperglycemic subjects were higher in all age groups in all the frequencies suggestive of sensorineural hearing loss. The hyperglycemic subjects with poor control of their blood sugar levels (HbA1C > 8%) had elevated auditory thresholds in all the test frequencies. The fasting blood sugar level in hyperglycemic subjects showed a trend towards significant difference at higher frequencies, the postprandial blood sugar levels showed significant differences at higher frequencies. There was no effect of duration of diabetes mellitus on the hearing thresholds in hyperglycemic subjects. CONCLUSION: Subjects with hyperglycemia have a sensorineural hearing loss when evaluated with a pure tone audiometer in all frequencies than a normoglycemic control group. The study showed that post prandial blood sugar levels and HbA1C levels had a direct bearing on the auditory acuity of the hyperglycemic subjects.
