A FIRST-YEAR COURSE TO INTEGRATE BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS AND CLINICAL PROBLEM SOLVING USING TEAM-BASED LEARNING

William E. Seifert, Jr. *, Jeffrey K. Actor, Roger J. Bick, Leonard J. Cleary, Daniel J. Felleman, Joanne L. Oakes, Allison R. Ownby, and Norman W. Weisbrodt, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, TX 77030 U.S.A.

PURPOSE: To facilitate the integration of traditional discipline-based basic science courses with the concepts and skills taught in Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM), a clinical scenario, problem-based course was developed to enable students to appreciate the interdisciplinary concepts of concurrent courses and to establish connections between concepts presented in successive semesters.

METHODS: Seven 90-minute team-based learning (TBL) sessions were developed to present scenarios of patient problems. Each session integrated content from three or more of the nine first-year courses. The first-year class was divided into 40 teams of six students. The students’ mastery of pre-reading and didactic lecture material was assessed using individual and group readiness assurance tests (IRAT/GRAT). The application exercises consisted of clinical scenarios with problem sets to be solved as a team. The students were assessed based on their IRAT, GRAT and team written justifications as well as a final team “take-home” examination. Students were given the opportunity to evaluate the course after each semester. This course concept was piloted for three years as part of the ICM course prior to being established as a stand-alone course.

RESULTS: Responses from student evaluations indicated that an overwhelming majority felt the sessions helped them better apply their basic science knowledge to clinical manifestations of disease. Most rated the GRAT as a useful learning activity, but did not rate the IRAT as highly.

CONCLUSION/FUTURE DIRECTIONS: The results suggest that these TBL clinical problem solving exercises are an effective method for integrating basic science concepts taught in a traditional discipline-based curriculum.