Comparison of Critical Thinking among undergraduate medical students of Conventional and Integrated curricula in Twin Cities

Objectives: To compare critical thinking of undergraduate medical students of institutes following traditional and integrated curriculum at Twin cities.

Methods: The current cross-sectional study was conducted in medical colleges of Twin Cities from February 2021 till August 2021. Two medical colleges one with conventional and other with integrated mode of curriculum were included. One hundred medical students were selected by simple random sampling from each conventional and integrated medical college. Free critical thinking test tool was used for data collection. The tool was composed of five sections, Arguments, Assumptions, Deductions, Inferences and interpreting information. Data entry and analysis was done by using SPSS version 20. Chi-Square test of independence was run to determine the association of critical thinking with type of curriculum. Independent sample t-test was applied to find out the mean difference in the critical thinking of medical students following the two different curriculums.

Results: In current study 200 students were included. Majority were females (n= 155, 77.5%). The overall percentage of good critical thinking was found to be 49%. Majority of the students (n=57, 58.2%) having good critical thinking were found associated with integrated curriculum (p < 0.024, OR= 0.524, 95% CI= 0.3 - 0.92). There was statistically significant difference of critical thinking between institutes following two different curriculum strategies. Total critical thinking score was also found statistically significantly [MD= 5.00, 95% CI, (-1.05-8.96), p<0.013], more with integrated curriculum (133.48±15.6) as compared to conventional curriculum (128.47 ± 11.43).

Conclusion: Critical thinking was found high among the students with the integrated curriculum as compared to the conventional.