Perception of Faculty about Skills Assessment in Community Medicine for Medical Undergraduate Students

Abstract Context: Since learning is a complex process, there are instances, in which a certain study strategy may not be suitable. Effective learning stems from a passion for the material and judicious application of study strategies. Conventional assessment methods did not observe the clinical performance directly in day-to-day practice and if observed, were not accompanied by any feedback. Objectives: The objective of this study was to list the important skills to be assessed in preventive and social medicine from the perspective of preventive and social medicine faculties, to list the tools used for skill assessment in community medicine from the faculty’s perspective, and to explore the challenges in the implementation of skills assessment and its solution. Materials and Methods: This is qualitative exploratory study conducted among faculties of community medicine from various medical colleges in India. Duration of 2 months duration from August 2022 to September 2022. A total of 45 community medicine faculties participated in the study. The study tool was an open-ended, standardized, pretested questionnaire. Data analysis by free listed items for community medicine skills and skill assessment tools were entered in visual Anthropac free list software separately for Junior and senior faculties. Salient items were identified based on Smith’s Salience Score for each group separately. Results: The mean age of participants was 35.84 35.84± (6.8) standard deviation years, ranging from 28 to 61 years. Among them, 24 (53.3%) were females and 21 (46.7%) were males. Communication skills and clinical skills were stated by both junior and senior faculties as the salient skills to be assessed in undergraduate medical students. Objective structured clinical examination, objective structured practical examination, and direct observation of procedural skill were chosen by both the faculty groups for assessment of skills. The common challenges for implementing skill assessment were lack of interest and motivation in students and faculties and lack of training of staff. The solutions suggested by them were motivating the students and staff with incentives and prizes and conducting a faculty development program for skills assessment. Conclusions: Proper planning and implementation of skill teaching and assessment should be carried out, with regular faculty development programs conducted by the institution, and solutions to barriers identified. To encourage students to learn skills in community medicine and undergo frequent formative assessments without causing boredom.