Learners’ Perspective on the Situation of Bed Side Teaching on the Medical Floor in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Objective:  Decline in bedside teaching is one of the problems that medical education is facing today. It has always been the best modality for effectively imparting clinical skills. It has declined from 75% in 1960s to 8 – 19% today. Various factors notably advancing medical technology are in essence phasing out bedside teaching. Our study was aimed to assess frequency and adequacy of bedside teaching on the medical floor.

Methods:  This cross sectional study conducted in May 2015 in Mayo Hospital, Lahore included 152 trainee doctors, who gave feedback about various aspects of bedside teaching via a self-administered questionnaire. Frequency of bedside teaching was assessed in terms of number of sessions per week. It was considered adequate if its various aspects including contributions by teachers, learners, allied health professionals and patients were carried out in 70% or more sessions. Z-test was used to compare these aspects to the adequacy criterion. Responses of house officers and postgraduates and male and female doctors were compared by t-test. P-value < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results:  Frequency of bedside teaching was reported to be 62.25%. All aspects of bedside teaching were significantly lower than the adequacy criterion (p-value 0.000). The inadequacy was more noticeable by postgraduates (p-value < 0.05).

Conclusion:  Frequency of bedside teaching was acceptable but the adequacy criterion was not achieved in any of the areas studied.