Impact of some low.cost interventions on students' performance in a Nigerian medical school

Abstract

Background: Studentsf poor performance in physiology examinations has been worrisome to the university community. Reported preference of peer.tutoring to didactic lectures at the University of Nigeria Medical School has not been investigated.
Aim: The aim of this work is to design/implement low.cost interventions to improve teaching and learning of physiology.
Materials and Methods: This is a postintervention retrospective review of medical Student's performance in 2nd Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery examinations physiology. Data were collected and analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics using the MedCalc Statistical software (Turkey). The odds ratio (OR) was used to determine the chances of passing before and after the intervention. The level of significance was set at P < 0.05.
Results: A total of 2152 students sat for the professional examination over the study period, and 1485 students passed the examination at first attempt giving an overall pass rate of 69%. The pass rate from 2008 when our interventions started was significantly higher than the pass rate before this reform (OR: 0.53; 95% confidence interval: 0.43-0.64; P < 0.0001).
Conclusion: Results support the engagement of teachers with strong translational interests and clinicians to augment existing faculty in basic sciences, innovative alternatives to passive lecture formats and students involvement in program evaluation.

Key words: Learning, low.cost innovation, medical school, Nigeria