8^th ACME Course 1^st Contact Session at PSMC, Karamsad, Anand, Gujarat

Dr. Ranjit Guha

Principal

Professor of Anatomy

Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna

PROJECT

a.     Title: “Evaluation of Perception of Second Professional MBBS Students About Medical Research at IGIMS, Patna.”

b.     Introduction: Nowadays patient care is solely based on EBM (Evidence based medicine) and the generation of evidence requires sound knowledge of research methodologies. A pass out MBBS student is a primary contact of patient care and also a future researcher, hence he requires an early and systematic exposure to the research methods¹.

           The current undergraduate academic programmes in India are not producing enough personnel for research purposes in the various medical fields. The main reason for this is the medieval curriculum which focuses on didactic learning. This curriculum does not motivate students’ interests in research during their study in medical school and hence they are less likely to seek a research experience².

The question of whether a research component should be an integral part of medical curriculum has been debated in the past and is still controversial. Patient care is the most important aspect of a medical graduate but teaching, administration and research are also essential aspects. The implementation of a research component is more important at a student level as it helps to develop a judicious insight in their academic and clinical practice, which every medical person should possess³. Evidence based medical practice is now receiving great emphasis internationally⁴. Scholarly activity programmes are essential components of the modern undergraduate medical curriculum⁵. To make ‘importing’ knowledge to indigenous generation of knowledge, it is important to develop research oriented educational programmes both at the undergraduate and postgraduate level^6,.

In the past few decades, there is a trend of including research component in the undergraduate medical curriculum and this is shown to increase the interest of the students to conduct research after their graduation⁷. The changes of including the research component as curricular or extra-curricular component in undergraduate medical curriculum in many countries during the last few decades began in some of the universities in US and Europe. Many of the South Asian countries are going to start the change in the next few years. Thus there is an increasing trend of including research component in the medical curriculum over the years⁸.

Undergraduate students will also be involved in research and they may become acquainted to publish research article either alone or in groups with the help of faculty members as well as PG’s. This might also help them in getting grants from different funding agencies like ICMR. They will also become a good physician at community level because they will be able to separate out reliable medical information based on EBM out of sea of web and text based knowledge⁹.

c.     Objectives:

Ø  To know the perception of undergraduate medical students about medical research and to sensitize them with it in an attempt to generate interest and spirit of inquiry.

Ø  To guide and train them regarding how to write a research protocol for project and publish scientific articles.

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d.      Methodology: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study will be conducted after obtaining approval of Institutional Ethics Committee and written informed consent from participants. A group of MBBS students (batches of 25) of third semesters (2^nd Prof. MBBS) will be sensitized with the importance of medical research and research methodologies during workshop of two days in form of theory with practical examples. Then they will be asked to bring a simple topic of their choice and do the review of literature. Finally, they will be asked to prepare a research protocol. At each step, they will be guided by faculty members. The project will span over six months (June to November 2019) and will be started after submission to and subsequent approval by Institutional Ethics committee.

e.     Outcome Matrix:

f.      Evaluation: Measurement of outcome will be tested by predesigned validated Pre and Post test questionnaire containing both open- and close-ended questions. Filled questionnaires will be received from second professional MBBS students of my institute. Protocol submitted by each group will be assessed on pre set   defined criteria. Feedback of each student will also be taken at the end of project using Likert scale. The questionnaire will be self-designed after literature search and relevance will be verified by senior faculty and colleagues.  The understandability will be checked by administering the questionnaire to undergraduate students. The questions will be modified according to suggestions. Perception feedback will be taken by questionnaire method containing open ended questions to check common response for qualitative analysis. All data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics. Quantitative analysis will be checked by calculating the statistical differences (p value) of pre- and post-test questionnaire.

g.     Evaluation Matrix:

h.     Contact Map:

i.      Gantt Chart:

j.      References:

                  1.         Vujaklija A, Hren D, Sambunjak D, Vodopivec I, Ivanis A, Marusic A, et al. Can teaching research methodology influence students’ attitude towards science? Cohort study and nonrandomized trial in a single medical school. J Investig Med. 2010;58:282-6.

                  2.         Memarpour M, Fard AP, Ghasemi R. Evaluation of attitude to, knowledge of and barrirs toward research among medical science students. Asia Pac Fam Med. 2015;14:1.[PMC free article].

                  3.         Lavis JN, Oxman AD, Moynihan R, Paulsen EJ. Evidence-informed health policy 1 – Synthesis of findings from a multi-method study of organizations that support the use of research evidence. Implement Sci. 2008;3:53.[PMC free article].

                  4.         Amin t, Kaliyadan f, Abdulatheem EA, Majed M, Khanjaf H, Mirza M. knowledge, attitudes and barriers related to participation of medical students in research in three Arab Universities. Educ Med J. 2012;4:e47-55.

                  5.         Noorelahi MM, Soubhanneyaz AA, Kasim KA. Perceptions, barriers and practices of medical research among students at Taibah College of medicine, Madinah, Saudi Arabia. Adv Med Educ Pract. 2015;6:479-85.

                  6.         Burgoyne LN, O’Flynn S, Boylan GB. Undergraduate medical research: The student perspective. Med Educ Online. 2010;15:1-9.

                  7.         Park SJ, McGhee CN, Sherwin T. Medical students’ attitudes towards research and a career in research: An Auckland, New Zealand study. N Z Med J. 2010;123:34-42.

                  8.         Chakraborti C, Bourgeois DJ, Gleeson E, Gunderson W. identifying barriers to successful research during medical school. Med Educ Dev. 2012;2:1-7.

                  9.         Pallamparthy S, Basavareddy A. Knowledge, attitude, practice, and barriers toward research among medical students: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey. Perspect Clin Res. 2019 Apr-Jun.[PMC free article].