Team-based Learning: a Novel Approach to Medical Student Education in Family Planning

Background: Medical schools are increasingly using team-based learning (TBL). We compared medical student satisfaction and understanding of key concepts in family planning following TBL and traditional lectures.

Study Design: During the OB/GYN clinical rotation orientation, third year medical students completed a pretest in family planning. Students in the odd-numbered clerkships participated in TBL, and students in the even-numbered clerkships participated in lectures. Both groups of students completed a posttest and satisfaction survey.

Results: A total of 130 students participated in this study. Sixty-nine students were in the TBL group, and 61 students were in the lecture group. The TBL group reported higher scores when asked if the learning style was a valuable experience (p=.045), helped them learn the course material (p=.01) and improved problem-solving skills (p=.04). Both groups gained significant amount of knowledge (p<.001) as calculated by the Student's paired t test. The change in scores was not significantly different between the groups (p=.73), as calculated using the Student's unpaired t test.

Conclusion: As a learning strategy for family planning, TBL resulted in high student satisfaction. This is the first study to evaluate this innovative teaching style for medical student education in family planning.