Problem‑based learning as an effective method for teaching theoretical surgery courses to medical students

This study was designed to assess the clinical judgment of medical students in surgery clinical decision‑making by a standard examination after lecture‑based learning (LBL) or problem‑based learning (PBL).

A prospective randomized trial study on 175 medical students whom were randomly allocated to three groups was performed during November 2017 and January 2018. LBL group (n = 103), PBL group led by an attending (n = 39), and PBL group (n = 33) led by an intern. Chi‑squared test and independent student t‑test were used to compare between the two groups. All the analyses were performed by the two‑sided method using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS version 22; SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA), and a P < 0.05 set as statistically significant.

The students in the PBL group scored significantly higher on the posttraining multiple‑choice examination, compared to the LBL group (P = 0.048). However, there was no significant difference between the PBL group led by an attending and the PBL group led by an intern (P = 0.892).

We concluded that PBL remarkably increased the students’ scores in the problem‑solving examination, as compared to the conventional method. We found no significant differences in PBL facilitated by an attending or an intern.