Evidence Based Community Health Project: Faculty Perception On Its Effectiveness, Outcomes And Implementation

Geetanjali Purohit, Trushna Shah, Niraj Pandit, Ajay George and Harsoda J. M.
Page No: 
551-555

Introduction: Evidence based public health is "The development, implementation and evaluation of effective programs and policies in public health through application of principles of scientific reasoning, including systematic uses of data and information systems and appropriate use of program planning models”. Sumandeep Vidyapeeth is the pioneer of evidence based education system (EBES) in India, running evidence based community health projects (EBChP) for undergraduates. Methods: One hundred and twenty III MBBS part-I students were completed 24 EBChP in groups, after 2 days of training workshop, under the guidance of trained mentors. Students were sensitized from the first day and prior workshop was also conducted to train them for evidence searching skills, data collection, data analysis and many other aspects of research methodology. This study was aimed to evaluate the faculty perception and attitude towards this new system for its effectiveness, outcome and future implementation. Results: Response rate of the study was 83.3%. Almost 80% faculties were agreed that research in medical field is important and EBChP will help medical students to understand the research. Workshop covered all the aspects of research protocol include group discussion, ethical aspects, literature searching, report writing, analysis and presentation and 70% faculty agreed that students acquire the research concept after workshop and EBChP. Feedback regarding student learning showed, 73% faculty were agreed that data collection in community was satisfactory and students learned team work and data analysis but report writing and presentation skills require more workout. Only 64% faculties agreed that the data collected was publishable. Faculty views for research as a good carrier option were 50-50% and consider it as a financially bad option. Conclusion: Faculty overall appreciates this education system and strongly recommends it to continue for medical students in future so they can learn research skills. At the same time funding, lack of concept and extra work load on faculties and students were reported as limitations.

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