Perception of Undergraduate Medical Students on Elective Posting Block-2: A Relative Importance Index Approach

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Curriculum Development
• Student Perception Studies

Background:

• Introduced a new elective module in the Indian undergraduate medical curriculum, requiring students to select a specialty for an eight-week posting.
• This study focuses on evaluating student perceptions of this novel elective posting system.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess undergraduate medical students' perceptions of their elective posting in Block-2.
• To identify key factors influencing student satisfaction and learning outcomes using the Relative Importance Index (RII).

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 181 undergraduate medical students.
• Data collection via an online structured questionnaire (Google Forms).
• Analysis of student perceptions across five domains: learning benefits, preceptor role/teamwork, satisfaction, perceived electives, and negative responses, using RII.

Main Results:

• The role of preceptors and teamwork emerged as the most significant domain (RII=0.65).
• Other key domains included negative response (RII=0.52), satisfaction (RII=0.45), learning benefits (RII=0.43), and perceived electives (RII=0.42).

Conclusions:

• Students highly value the role of preceptors and effective teamwork in their elective postings.
• The success of the elective module hinges on medical educators' commitment to innovative implementation, promoting lifelong learning among students.