Problem solving learning in emergency medicine: Effects and student’s perception

Abstract

Introduction: the Problem solving Learning (PSL) is an interactive method of teaching that allows students to learn at once clinical reasoning and acquisition of knowledge. The PSL is used to assess learner’s competencies.
Aim: To was to assess the educational relevance of PSL in emergency medicine and the perception of learners.
Methods: Evaluative study carried out in an emergency department on 5th grade students of medical studies. We proceeded through a PSL dossier. Were assessed, the size of the effects of the PSL measured using the Cohen Index (d) reported to the Hattie’s effect size scale. The perceptions of learners was assessed thanks to a questionnaire
Results: 42 students from the Faculty of Medicine of Tunis were enrolled in our study. The relative gain was greater than 40% in 90% of the cases and greater than 50% in 57% of the cases. The average rating of the PSL was 12.75 [8.5-17.85]. The effect size (d) of the PSL was 0.9 on the Hattie scale. The overall assessment of the PSL experience by the learners was very satisfactory in 66.5% of the cases and excellent in 33.5% of the cases.
Conclusion: The PSL represents a major development in learning pedagogical strategies with a rather interesting impact and effect size. We strongly encourage the use of PSL as a learning tool in emergency medicine. Further impact studies at larger scales are needed to confirm our results.