An evauation of the pathology education in the medical schools

AIM: Medical undergraduate education varies from one country to the another, from one faculty to the another within a single country in terms of content and delivery. Recently such educational methods as interactive education, problem-based training have been extensively discussing and applicability of these newly emergent educational methods depends heavily on the factors concerning infrastructure including the number of students, availability of visual-audio equipment, ratio of lecturer per student. This study analyses the pathoIogy education in our faculties.

METHOD: A 12-item questionnaire was sent to 30 pathology department of medical schools having undergraduate education. Of these questionnaires sent, 25 were returned and used in the study.

FINDINGS: Of the medical schools involved, in 18 integrate educational methods, in 7 traditional educational methods were used. The number of students in them are as follows; more than 200 students in 10 faculties, 200-100 students in 6 faculties, 100-60 in 1 faculty, 60-40 students in 2, 40-20 students in 3, 20-10 students in 3. Pathology education is introduced at the third year in 17 institution, at the second and third years in 6, at the third and fourth years in one. The ratio of practical courses to the theoretical lectures varies between 1/2 and 1/8 . General pathology topics are studied more than fifty hours in 14 institutions, 31-50 hours in 8, and less than thirty hours in two institutions. Mostly slides and overhead projection are used in these courses but very rarely video and CD- ROM are employed (in 5 and 2 institutions, respectively). In 17 institutions, students can attend clinical-pathological conferences, in 10 institutions they can observe autopsy. In 14 institutions, elective pathology education is being delivered while in 11 institutions it is not employed.

CONCLUSION: Conditions of the institutions seem to be the determining factor in the selection of educational methods.