Retention of basic sciences knowledge at clinical years: a single institute study from Sudan

Retention of basic science knowledge is essential for effective clinical reasoning and decision-making in medical education. However, many students face difficulties applying this foundational knowledge during their clinical years.

To determine the level of retained basic science knowledge among undergraduate medical students.

A cross sectional-single institutional-based study was conducted among medical students of two different batches in the University of Kassala, Sudan, during the academic period spanning 2021 to 2022. Thirty-six single answer questions were used for data collection. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 25.

Out of 185 invited students, 164 completed the exam questions yielding 88.65% response rate. Students' test scores ranged from 19.44% to 88.89%, with an overall average of 57.49 ± 14.60. Notably, 32 students (19.51%) scored ≤ 47%. The average scores between the two student batches were nearly identical (57.67% ± 14.82 and 57.32% ± 14.47), suggesting consistency in performance across batches. Analysis across subject areas revealed that integrated questions consistently produced the highest mean scores in both batches (64.66 ± 19.68 and 62.35 ± 21.07 respectively). Overall, integrated questions had the highest average score at 63.55 ± 20.39, followed by Physiology (60.37 ± 19.31) and Biochemistry (55.22 ± 16.49) while Anatomy recorded the lowest average score (50.81 ± 18.46).

This study indicates that how well the undergraduate medical students gaining better retention of basic medical sciences knowledge when it is clinically oriented.