Effectiveness of Orientation Programme for First Year Medical Students

Orientating students for entry into the professional life of medical education should be the basic priority of every medical institute. This enables the budding medical professionals to get acquainted towards new system and become aware about what is expected from them as per knowledge, skills and responsibilities. This provides an overview of the path they will be following for the next five and a half years time frame and even later in their medical practice and career. Medical Council of India (MCI) has set clear regulations regarding the foundation course for medical beginners. In this context, Medical Education Unit (MEU) of SBKS MI & RC, Piparia, Vadodara organised an orientation programme for first year MBBS students of 2017 batch to determine the impact of orientation programme and its learning outcome. This study was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of orientation programme for undergraduate medical students conducted by MEU as per the MCI recommendations.

Undergraduate orientation programme of 5 days was conducted for first year undergraduate medicalstudents of 2017-2018batch. Apretest was obtainedfromthe students followed by post-test after 5days of orientation programme. Students’ perceptions were obtained through a self-structured pre-validated questionnaire. Data collected were analysed statistically using paired t-test.

Pre-post learning test showed significant difference (p <.01) for each segment of the learning. Perceptional questionnaire analysis reported that 80% students suggested that overall orientation programme was excellent and should be continued for upcoming batches too. They liked all the sessions but ‘stress and time management’ and ‘communication skills’ were on their top list of liking, followed by subject-specific sessions.

This study clearly showed that there is a positive impact of orientation programme (as assessed by perception feedback) in familiarising students with multiple arenas of medical education curriculum. It is the first decisive step in the long journey of medical education.