The impact of sensitizing 1st year undergraduate medical students to research methodology

Research is a core essential component of evidence‑based medicine. The current study was undertaken to sensitize the undergraduate medical students the concept of biomedical research to sharpen their clinical skills.

This educational interventional study was done with a systemic random sample of 120 medical students in a tertiary care hospital. A workshop on biomedical research was conducted by the institutional ethics and medical education committee members followed by group activity regarding how to write the protocol of a research study. The protocols were then assessed using prestructured checklist by facilitators and feedback from the students and facilitators were assessed using student t‑score.

The pretest (5.86 ± 1.75) scores and posttest scores (11.82 ± 2.47) of multiple choice questions and open‑ended questions showed statistically significant difference. The feedback of students showed that 49.48% of students strongly agreed that contents discussed in the workshop were adequate, 61.85% agreed about better understanding of the topics of the workshop, 60.80% agreed that their queries and doubts are cleared, 53.6% agreed that the workshop motivates them to do research, and 44.3% agreed that they will attend the similar workshops in future. The protocols submitted by groups of students using the checklist showed 26%–80% scores.

The student’s knowledge on research methodology was significantly improved and teaching basic research methods to medical students at an early stage motivates the student to do research.