Biomedicine

Abstract

Introduction: Compulsory attendance in medical education needs constant attention which becomes challenging at times. The objective was to compare outcome of a class conducted with continuous didactic lecture compared to intermittent rest or music as lightening-up schemes in between the class. Methodology: After Ethical clearance and informed consent, 3 Physiology classes between 2pm-3pm were chosen for challenging topics. For the first 2 classes, 62 1styear physiotherapy students were randomised into 2 groups equally i.e. music and rest. In the 1st lecture, 30 min was didactic lecture then, 5min reinforcement of rest to one group and short self-chosen music through ear-phones to the second group was given. Then class was continued. 2nd lecture was similar as 1stexcept the groups were reversed. The 3rdlecture acted as a control i.e. without reinforcements. Assessment was 10 MCQs as pre and post-test. Difference between pre and post-test was calculated to assess improvement. Results: Analysis was done to assess on students own-best and on inter-group assessment. The post-test and the difference scores were statistically better with reinforcement when assessed for students own best. But when it came to analysing the performance in-between the groups, the results were not statistically significant. There were a greater number of students who showed improvement in performance with a reinforcement method, while analysing whole group performance, results looked indifferent. Conclusion: Five minutes reinforcement sessions of rest or music between the lecture might help to break the monotony but listening to music might deviate their concentration more than required and needs further analysis.