Incorporating problem based learning into medical curriculum: An experience from a medical college in Mangalore

BACKGROUND: The Medical Council of India (MCI) has envisioned a change in the undergraduate medical curriculum by encouraging integrated teaching and Problem Based Learning (PBL). METHODS: In this cross-sectional study 110 medical teachers of Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore were assessed regarding their perception on PBL. Independent t-test was applied to find out the difference in the mean perception scores regarding PBL among the teachers in pre/para-clinical and clinical departments and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: PBL as a teaching method was preferred by 65.2% medical teachers. The teachers from clinical departments (Mean 4.1, SD 0.8) perceived PBL sessions to be more effective than the traditional methods than those from the pre-clinical and para clinical departments (Mean 3.7, SD 3.7) and this difference was found to be statistically significant. (P =0.028). CONCLUSION: PBL can complement integrated teaching and motivates students towards self-learning, and apply the learnt concepts of basic specialties to clinical problem solving.