Perception of undergraduate students on the practical physiology curriculum: Strength and weaknesses

Background: The primary goal of medical education is to have competent physicians. Amidst the ongoing debates of clinical utility and relevance of the content of the traditional practical curriculum, there is an emergent need of restructuring the undergraduate curriculum in medical schools. Aim and Objective: The present study aimed to assess the strength and weaknesses of the present physiology practical curriculum by documenting and analyzing the feedback obtained from the MBBS students. Materials and Methods: A structured pre-tested internally validated questionnaire was used to assess the perception of the 2nd and 3rd year medical students for the relevance of physiology practical curriculum using Likert’s point scale. Data were collected using Microsoft Excel sheet and were analyzed in SPSS. Results: The results showed that responses of students’ for the relevance of practical of physiology were 82% for clinical physiology, 59% for hematology, and 10% for experimental. More than 50% of students’ in the study felt that the present physiology curriculum did not offer them learning of newer diagnostic techniques in physiology and it’s relation in clinical scenarios. Conclusions: We conclude that the practical physiology practical curriculum should be made need based and clinically relevant to meet the global standards of medical graduates.