| Clinical Bottom Line: Cohorts from a self-directed PBL medical school are more up to date in tests of knowledge about managing hypertension than cohorts from a traditional school up to and including 15 years after graduation. |
Educational Scenario: You are discussing the advantages and disadvantages of problem-based learning (PBL) and wonder what the long-term effects are in terms of tangible clinical competency.
Three-part Question: In helping medical students learn to become competent clinicians, would PBL make them more competent after they're out in practice for a few years?
Search Terms: none; DLS designed an RCT of this in 1968 but it was turned down by the deans. A McMaster medical student asked the same question 20 years later and performed a cohort study of graduates from a PBL and a traditional medical school. DLS wasn't part of that research team, but learned its result.
The Study:
Random samples (N=48 for each) of GPs who graduated from a PBL school (McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario) and a traditional school (U of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario), stratified for year of graduation (1974-85) and sex, were sent questionnaires with 52 questions about how to measure blood pressure, which levels to treat, pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment, detecting and managing low compliance, and follow-up. Response rates were 87% in both cohorts.
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