DOI: https://doi.org/10.47648/jswmc2025v15-02-122
Salam MU , Kaiser FR , Chowdhury MOA , Choudhury SF , Islam GMM , Haque MR , Mowla MG , Ahmad MM , Das HS , Rifat TA, Rashel ATM,Chowdhury NB, Das KT,Chowdhury TZ, Alam S1, Rahm
Background: The medical students become MBBS doctors after qualifying in different assessments according to curriculum. But there is no objective evaluation system in the curriculum to test the performance of doctors after finishing training and before issuing the MBBS certificate. This study aims at finding out whether the fresh doctors improve or deteriorate in theoretical knowledge after internship training. The results may be of value in determining the necessity of introducing an evaluation test for interns at the end of internship training.
Materials and Method: Eighty-four fresh MBBS doctors who passed from Sylhet Women’s Medical College were selected as participants. They were assessed twice during the study. First assessment was taken before their joining as interns and the second assessment was taken one year later, after the completion of the internship training. Same evaluation tool was used for both the assessments. Fifty ‘single best answer’ type questions carrying equal marks (total 100 marks) were set involving all disciplines of the phase 4, MBBS curriculum, as the evaluation tool. More weightage was given on understanding (38%) than recall (25%) type questions. The obtained marks by each students in the two assessments were compared and statistical significance of the difference in average score was calculated by paired t-test. The study was kept hidden from the participants, most of the co-researchers and the teachers/trainers until the end of the completion assessment to avoid bias. The students were also kept blind about the post-test during their training.
Results: There was a significant (p value 0.001931) difference between the pre-and-post test scores among doctors with a worsening of post-test average than pre-test, indicating deterioration in the theoretical knowledge status among doctors after 1 year of training.
Conclusion: According to this study, the participating doctors deteriorated in their theoretical competence after the internship training. However, further studies are needed to see whether this finding is reproducible or not.