CHANGES IN KNOWLEDGE OF FIRST PROFESSIONAL MBBS STUDENTS ABOUT PRIMARY HEALTH CARE AFTER ONE-DAY INTERACTION IN A NEWLY STARTED COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAM OF REHMAN MEDICAL COLLEGE, PESHAWAR, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA

Abstract

Introduction: A global effort is underway to encourage
knowledge about Primary Health Care (PHC) among
medical students. Rehman Medical College, Peshawar
introduced a Community Outreach Program (COP) for
training medical students in PHC. The present study was
conducted to assess the impact of a one-day COP
Orientation Visit to a rural community hospital on First
Professional MBBS students of the college.
Materials & Methods: Prior to the one-day visit to the
rural Nahaqi Emergency Satellite Hospital (NESH) in
Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, conducted in November
2014, 102 students were given a Pre Test composed of 10
questions on relevant aspects of PHC. Following the visit,
the same test was administered as a Post Test. Differences
in responses were scored and their frequency
distributions, means & SD evaluated for significant changes
based on the Chi Square test and the Paired Samples T
test, keeping p≤0.05 as significant .
Results: Significant improvement in responses (p<0.001)
were noted for 08 (80%) of the questions, particularly for
those related to observable aspects of PHC imparted
during the Orientation visit. Score categories shifted for
both frequency distributions and mean scores from lower
marks categories to middle or higher marks categories in
the Post Test.
Conclusion: The one-day orientation visit had a
significant impact on medical students’ knowledge of
Primary Health Care.