Teaching of the renal system in an integrated, problem-based curriculum

To assess teaching in the Renal System Block of an integrated problem-based learning (PBL) undergraduate medical curriculum by the students' and tutors' according to their perceptions of relevance, stimulation and amount learned from the problems, a 16-item questionnaire focusing on these issues was distributed to a group of 1st year medical students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (n = 17) and their tutors (n = 3). Group ratings on Likert-type rating scales and open-ended comments were analyzed to determine median and qualitative differences. Students' and tutors had favorable, congruent perceptions of amount learned, stimulation and relevance of renal medicine problems to the Saudi Arabian healthcare context. Open-ended comments of both groups were highly supportive of the Block objectives, content and integrated teaching. It is concluded that exploring the congruence of students' and tutors' perspectives has been helpful in determining the necessity for renal medicine block modifications; emulating a PBL collaborative knowledge-building approach in curriculum development.