Usefulness of new competency-based medical education (CBME) ophthalmology curriculum – students’ perspective

Dear Editor, The National Medical Commission (NMC) had addressed the substandard quality of an Indian medical graduate by introducing competency-based medical education (CBME). It focuses on the desired and observable ability of learners in real-life situations.[1] Student feedback is important as it provides several useful inputs for educational improvements. We collected students’ feedback using Google Forms online survey platform. There were 33 questions that were based on the self-reported usefulness of various teaching, learning, and assessment methods on a three-point Likert scale. Of the 250 undergraduate MBBS medical students, 241 responded to the questionnaire (response rate = 96.4%). A total of 66.4% students felt self-directed learning (SDL) is more useful as compared to didactic lectures. A total of 80.1% found small group discussions more useful as compared to traditional teaching. A total of 95.4% felt tutorials and 78% felt seminar presentations on important topics are useful in learning of ophthalmology. A total of 92.5% students found the supervisor-student clerkship system beneficial during the clinical postings. A total of 95% reported that vertical and horizontal integrations are helpful in understanding the topic better. A total of 98.3% students felt that MCQs-based evaluation would be helpful in future competitive exams. A total of 92.1% students felt that the subject of attitude, ethics, and communication incorporation is helpful for a future doctor. When asked about the theory exam pattern, 41.1% of students found that this pattern of paper was difficult to complete in time as the number of maximum marks have increased from 60 to 100 marks. However, 95% of students said that objective structured clinical examination (OSCE)-based practical examination is more useful in better scoring, and 98.3% found it more useful in testing the knowledge gained. Overall, 62.7% of students supported the implementation of the new curriculum in MBBS. In a study conducted by Muraleedharan et al.,[2] 100% of the students found vertical integration and small group teaching as useful and SDL and near-peer teaching was also appreciated well by 78% of students. Similar results were observed in another study conducted by Saurabh et al.[3] in which all of the students were interested in the inclusion of case, problem, and multiple choice-based question discussions in regular teaching classes. CBME curriculum provides model ophthalmology training to undergraduate students that is bound to bridge the gap between the eye health needs of society and eye services rendered. Financial support and sponsorship: Nil. Conflicts of interest: There are no conflicts of interest.