Effect of Introduction of 'Research Orientation Module' in Ayurveda Undergraduates

Introduction: Health research is necessary to address community health issues and needs even in enhancing health care. Anyone involved in medical science must understand research. A long-term approach for the promotion of health research is to target undergraduates. Aim: The present study is an effort to develop a time bound 'Research orientation module' with the aim to orient Ayurveda undergraduates about the basics of research and providing them hands-on training to develop primary proposal writing skills. Materials and Methods: It was an educational interventional study. It was conducted in two phases. In phase I and II, 160 and 56 students of II, III, and IV years Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) respectively were enrolled. The students were exposed to research orientation module. The pretest, posttest, and feedback was taken and students were asked to prepare a research proposal on their topic of interest. The data is represented in mean and standard deviation. As the data followed normal distribution, parametric tests were used to analyse the data. Intergroup comparison was done with one-way ANOVA test. The paired t-test was used to check mean differences between groups. Result: In all batches, the mean posttest score (15.02 +/- 2.63) was significantly higher than pretest score (1.44 +/- 0.65) which showed improvement in knowledge. The mean proposal evaluation score was increased in all batches after students participated in workshops, but the IV year students score (12.83) was significantly increased in comparison with II year (9.92)and III year (10.53)students' score. With the aid of the students' feedback, the workshop evaluation was completed. Positive feedback and an interest in learning about the fundamentals of research were apparent. Conclusion: It can be concluded that 'Research orientation module' is effective in educating Ayurveda undergraduates about the basics of research and it is helpful in developing proposal writing skills in Ayurveda undergraduates.