Perception of Undergraduate Medical Students on Elective Posting Block-2: A Relative Importance Index Approach

Background The elective module is a new addition to the undergraduate medical curriculum in India, in which students choose the specialty on their own, where they are required to spend eight weeks. This study aimed to assess students' perception regarding their elective posting in Block-2 through the use of the Relative Importance Index (RII). Methodology This cross-sectional study included undergraduate students. Data were collected from 181 participants by using an online structured Google Forms questionnaire. Students were asked to provide their perception on elective posting Block-2 on five domains, i.e., learning benefits, role of preceptor and teamwork, satisfaction with the elective, perceived electives, and negative response, and the statements were ranked through calculation using the RII. Results The RII revealed that the most important domains were the role of preceptors and teamwork (0.65), followed by negative response (0.52), satisfaction with electives (0.45), learning benefits (0.43), and perceived electives (0.42). Conclusions Students perceived the role of preceptor and teamwork as the most important domain. The success of elective posting lies with the effort of medical teachers to execute and implement in such a novel way that each student becomes a lifelong learner.