Introductions: Self-assessment enables medical students to self-evaluate their knowledge and seek timely assistance for effective learning from their peers and faculties. Self-assessment is an integral part of the student assessment system of School of Medicine, Patan Academy of Health Sciences.Methods: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and Structured Integrated Short Answer Questions (SISAQs) links were sent to the personal e-mail of medical students at the start of Principle of Human Biology I Block. These items were created and selected from various disciplines as per their curricular weightage in this block. Students’ scores and feedback were analysed once this 11-week long block was over.Results: The MCQ surveys had ideal difficulty levels and acceptable discrimination indices but they had poor internal consistencies. The criterion-referenced cut-scores of MCQs and SISAQ were higher than the conventionally used 50% pass-mark in Nepal. Students’ suggested to increase the MCQs and SISAQ numbers and match them in terms of their difficulty levels with the end-block and end-year summative assessments. Item analysis helped to identify the items to be retained, revised and discarded for the future use.Conclusions: Web-based self-assessment of knowledge was found to be an extremely useful tool to inculcate self-directed and life-long learning habits among medical students.Journal of Patan Academy of Health Sciences. 2014 Dec;1(2):58-63

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Introducti on: The metabolic syndrome (MS) is a cluster of complex interrelated risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease which includes central obesity, glucose intolerance, hypertension, high triglyceride and low HDL-C. The prevalence of MS in Asian Indian is 49.2%. There is evidence of increasing prevalence of MS in the world. Therefore, we intended to fi nd the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in the local populati on of Patan, a major urban center in Nepal. Methods Conclusions:There is high prevalence of MS in the study populati on. Age, BMI and family history of diabetes are found to be the main predictors for metabolic syndrome.

Introductions: Faculty development programs (FDP) is important to promote the core education principles/philosophies and instill the innovations planned and/or carried out in any educational program. Thus, Patan Academy of Health Sciences (PAHS) carries regular FDP in order to effectively implement and innovate curriculum, and assessment. Methods: Effectiveness of the workshop was assessed by validated questionnaire of FDP workshop on PBL in 2010 at School of Medicine PAHS. Paired t-test was used to test the differences between before and after scores on knowledge and application on various aspects of the program. Effect size was also calculated to determine the size of the difference between before and after the workshop. Results: There were 19 participants, 11 male and 8 female, mean age was 38.4 years. There was overall increase in mean scores for all 18 items. The overall mean score of knowledge and application increased after FDP. The knowledge and application scale among the participants in terms of their age, gender and discipline increased. The effect sizes were high (d>1.3) and moderately high (0.8<d<1.3) for most scores. Conclusions: The knowledge and application of participants after FDP increased on various aspects of health professions education in the areas of adult teaching-learning, feedback cycle and assessment as part of the formal curriculum.Journal of Patan Academy of Health Sciences. 2016 Dec;3(2):36-40

Introductions: Problem based learning (PBL) is an innovative approach of teaching learning methodology in which, instead of traditional lectures, students are divided in small groups and provided with a problem which they try to solve. It has been used in different medical schools around the world for over 50 years. In Nepal, the use of PBL methodology is gradually increasing.Methods: Three experts on PBL content and process provided interactive lectures, hands-on exercises and plenary discussion sessions in 2014 at Lumbini Medical College. Effectiveness of the workshop was assessed by validated retro-prequestionnaire at the end of the workshop. Paired t-tests were used to test the differences between before and after scores on knowledge, application and opinion on PBL. Effect size was also calculated to determine the size of the difference between before and after the workshop.Results: The PBL training was effective as it increased knowledge, application and opinion on PBL of most of the participants. The workshop benefitted the most to the experienced male basic sciences faculty. However, clinical sciences faculty were skeptical of its application and their opinion on PBL did not change much whereas nursing faculty had some reservation on their opinion about PBL only.Conclusions: As PBL is implemented during the basic sciences years only, the concerned faculty benefitted the most from the workshop. Further such trainings are advocated to increase the pool of trained tutors for effective implementation of the PBL.Journal of Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2015. page:7-12