Problem-based learning as an effective method for teaching theoretical surgery courses to medical students

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to assess the clinical judgment of medical students in surgery clinical decision-making by a standard examination after lecture-based learning (LBL) or problem-based learning (PBL).MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective randomized trial study on 175 medical students whom were randomly allocated to three groups was performed during November 2017 and January 2018. LBL group (n = 103), PBL group led by an attending (n = 39), and PBL group (n = 33) led by an intern. Chi-squared test and independent student t-test were used to compare between the two groups. All the analyses were performed by the two-sided method using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS version 22; SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA), and a P < 0.05 set as statistically significant. RESULTS: The students in the PBL group scored significantly higher on the posttraining multiple-choice examination, compared to the LBL group (P = 0.048). However, there was no significant difference between the PBL group led by an attending and the PBL group led by an intern (P = 0.892). CONCLUSION: We concluded that PBL remarkably increased the students' scores in the problem-solving examination, as compared to the conventional method. We found no significant differences in PBL facilitated by an attending or an intern.