European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

EFFECT OF GRADED ATTENDANCE IN STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN PHARMACOLOGY IN-CLASS LECTURES IN A UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL

*Keshab Raj Paudel, Raju Panta

ABSTRACT

Background: In-class attendance in basic medical sciences (preclinical sciences) is a growing current concern as many students show less interest in attending the traditional lectures. Methods: This study was a prospective comparative study and consisted of one hundred eighty-two students in their basic medical sciences years, and was conducted for two years. Attendance of students who were studying Pharmacology in the third semester was taken. The in-class attendance in Pharmacology lectures was graded for one year and not graded for the subsequent year, and the attendance percentage was compared for the two groups of the students. Chi square test was used and level of significance (P value) was set at ≤0.05. Results: The average Pharmacology in-class attendance of the students for non-graded class attendance was 61% vs 87% for graded class attendance (P<0.05). 28.8% of students attended more than 90% of the lectures when attendance was non-graded vs 62% of students when the attendance was graded (P<0.05). Similarly, 55.5% of students attended more than 50% of the lectures when attendance was non-graded vs 93.4% of the students when attendance was graded (P<0.05). Conclusion: Results of the study show that graded attendance policy increases in-class student attendance significantly in Pharmacology lectures. This policy may be adopted by medical schools to improve student’s in-class participation in basic medical sciences.

Keywords: Attendance, Lecture, Medical education, Pharmacology, Preclinical.