Success of didactic gastroenterology teaching for postgraduate medical residents

Although the Doctor of Medicine programme in Internal Medicine at the U.W.I. is a structured course with several teaching formats, the optimally effective form of teaching remains unknown. An experimental didactic teaching course in Gastroenterology was preceded and followed by an examination. This was conducted to determine the effectiveness of this form of teaching. The majority of residents ranked the course favourably. The mean examination score increased by 6.4%, from 25.4% before the course to 31.8% at the end. Although the more senior residents scored higher than their juniors in the pre-test, this difference disappeared in the post-test. Structured didactic teaching requires close supervision, active participation by trainee and reinforcement for the full benefit to be attained.