Integrated Teaching in Physiotherapy on Spinal Cord Injury for Final year Undergraduate Students: 8 years longitudinal study.

Integrate Teaching for SCI

Abstract

Introduction: For acquiring clinical skills of treating various aspects of disease based on strong foundation of knowledge of disease,   Integrated teaching is the need of time. However, it cannot be one time experiment. For successful cultivation of expected clinical skills, it is imperative that a continuous effort is made for providing this integration on a regular basis. This report is based on the experiences of successful implementation of Integrated Teaching of  ‘Spinal Cord Injury Physiotherapy management’ for final year UG students of Physiotherapy course.

Methodology: It is an 8 year study of implementation of Spinal cord Injury Management for final year students implemented since 2016 at our institute. After a preliminary FGD in 2016 about the content of module, a revision meeting is conducted every 2 years to review the content. Students and faculty feedback is obtained about the experience of being a part of this module is obtained every year.  Post test is conducted after every module to assess the knowledge and skill gained by participants.

Results: There is consistent positive feedback about the content of module form faculty and students since 2016 measured in terms of satisfaction index of equal to or more than 80 for each parameter of questionnaire. Parameters from students questionnaire include knowledge and skill gain, interactivity, optimal balance between theory and practical and time management. From those of faculty include interdepartmental interaction, facilitation of requisite knowledge and skills, optimal challenge of implementation.

Conclusion: This Longitudinal study implementing Integrated Teaching in Physiotherapy provides a strong evidence for incorporating this method of teaching learning in the curriculum.

Key words: Integrated Teaching, Education, Physiotherapy, TL methods.