Evaluation of a Multidisciplinary Clinical Module on Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery at Al-Baha University: Students and Academic Staff Perceptions

Introduction: Al-Baha Faculty of Medicine is adopting an integrated system-based curriculum. In the basic sciences phase, integration was direct and system-based, while very challenging in the clinical phase. To develop a fully integrated system-based clinical module, it was necessary to revisit the clinical disciplines to be tailored in one common educational medium. Methods: To develop a module on: Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery (CCVS), a committee was assembled including clinical disciplines. Intended learning outcomes (ILOs) were formulated. Varieties of teaching, learning and assessment strategies were adopted. Inferences of program evaluation were obtained from students and staff through self-administered questionnaires. Results: These efforts resulted in construction of students’ study guide and approximately 20% of the content was allocated to basic sciences. The module was introduced to the fourth year students. The teaching activities consisted of 32 lectures: 32, 2 tutorials, 4 seminars, 8 problem-based learning (PBL) sessions, 4 self-directed learning (SDL) sessions, 5 skills laboratory sessions, 12 a day-long hospital-based clinical sessions, and 2 basic sciences practical sessions.Module ILOs were perceived as comprehensive by 23.3% and 86.7% of staff and students respectively. 23.3% of staff and students perceived the content as satisfactory. Perceived points of weakness were: imbalance between basic and clinical content and between medicine and surgery. Conclusions: Validity of integration in the clinical phase bridged the borders between different disciplines as the case in basic sciences. CCVS module can be seen as a prototype of integration between different areas of clinical sciences.