ACTIVE METHODOLOGIES FOR SOLVING CLINICAL CASES: STUDENT’S FEEDBACK

To understand health/disease processes in cooperation with multidisciplinary teams is a skill that future health professionals should have. For this purpose, students have to acquire competences that are difficult to achieve with the conventional methods. In this scenario, the use of active methodologies could be useful in order to develop the required competences necessaries to assure health promotion and improve patients’ quality of life. During the academic course 2016-17, we developed an educational innovation project based on the resolution of clinical cases with students from different degrees related to Health Sciences, at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). The undergraduates that took part in the project belonged to Dentistry, Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Nursing, Pharmacy and Physiotherapy. Virtual classrooms and a final debate were carried out with the students to discuss the most relevant aspects of the clinical cases and the methodology used.

Objective:
The aim of this work was to identify the aspects considered of greatest interest by the students about the use of active methodologies and cooperative education on the resolution of clinical cases from a multidisciplinary approach.

Methodology:
The assessment of the activity was performed through an anonymous online survey. This survey consisted on 25 questions grouped into 5 groups: a) Student’s information (4 questions); b) Assessment of the methodology (6 questions); c) Usefulness of ICTs application (4 questions); d) Effectiveness in achieving transverse and specific skills (5 questions) and e) Personal assessment about the activity and possible improvements (5 questions). The results were analyzed and plotted with the statistical program GraphPad Prism.

Results:
For evaluating the results, a survey was filled by the students after the clinical case was solved. In total, 64 students completed the survey. Some of the best-graded aspects were: the improvement in searching relevant information, knowledge integration, ability to analyze situations from the professional practice and ability to reach agreements. In general, most of the students were highly interested (4/5 or 5/5) in using this type of methodologies in the class (51%).

Conclusions:
The use of active methodologies for the resolution of clinical cases in a multidisciplinary way promotes collaborative learning among the different health science degrees involved in this work. The high acceptance level and favourable evaluation of this methodology by the students raise the need to increase the use of this type of activities, since they establish professional scenarios that encourage active and cooperative learning, and point out the value of the collaborative resolution of the clinical cases.

Acknowledgments:
The funding from the University of the Basque Country UPV / EHU (PIE15-17 nº40) is appreciated.