Evaluation of the satisfaction with the use of clinical cases as a didactic tool

Abstract

Introduction: The teaching of the health sciences has undergone changes based upon theoretical frames coming from different points of view and models in accordance to the diverse ages. One to the foregoing, in the school of medicine, curricular changes was made for the medical education under a scope by competencies. Didactic tools are implanted to achieve that the students link basic sciences with clinical studies; and among them it is used the “clinical case”; not very used technique in the teaching of basic sciences in our country, but very usual in other world`s places. The aim of this study was to document the satisfaction of two students and teachers generations with the discussion of clinical cases as a technique of teaching.

Method: This is a transversal, observational and descriptive study. The population was 713 students and 21 professors from the school year 2009-2010, and 269 students and 10 teachers from the school year 2011- 2012 from the microbiology and parasitology department of the National University school . To evaluate the degree of satisfaction from the students and professors, regarding the satisfaction of the clinical case as a didactic technique in both school years, a Likert scale with five options was applied.

Results: Students and professors think that this strategy helps them to acquire knowledge, that it integrates the contents of other subjects and suggested to keep the technique going.

Conclusions: Based on the achieved results, it can be stated that the directed revision of the “clinical case”, got a satisfaction as a didactic technique from the students as well as professors in the teaching learning process.