Quality of Problem-based learning cases used in physiotherapy education

Abstract

Introduction: Problem-based learning (PBL) is one of the teaching methodologies used in the training of health professionals; the importance of the structure and content of the clinical cases to which the students are exposed to achieve the educational objectives has been previously described; however, the evidence on its quality in the teaching of physiotherapists is scarce.

Objective: To evaluate the quality of four clinical cases used in the teaching of physiotherapy based on the opinion of students and teachers.

Method: A cross-sectional analytical study that evaluated, through a validated questionnaire, the quality of the content and structure of four cases used by students of the physiotherapy degree at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Results: The instrument did not perform equally well for physiotherapy students, with students identifying one factor for all four cases, while teachers identified two factors related to learning skills and prior knowledge. The overall score of compliance with the characteristics was higher than four for both students and teachers (as they considered them to be of good quality).

Conclusions: The opinion of teachers and students provides valuable information on the usefulness of the clinical cases used; however, it demands an objective evaluation of the performance of the students in real clinical practice.