Introduction: Knowledge of learning styles of the students helps educators to address various needs of learners. Study objective was to determine learning styles of undergraduate medical students. Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted at Lahore Medical & Dental College (LMDC), Lahore, between January and March 2011 among students from first to fourth year MBBS classes using an online VARK inventory. Additional information was obtained using a structured questionnaire. Data was analysed using SPSS version 16 computer package. Chi square test was applied for association and statistical significance was determined with p ≤0.05 as the cutoff point. Results: Among the 338 study participants, 61% were females, 63% were between the age groups 20-23 years and 78% had done FSc. Each class representation was 1st year (26%), 2nd year (25%), 3rd year (29%) and 4 th year (20%). Most students depicted multimodal learning style (69%). The preferred unimodal styles were aural (14%) and kinesthetic (12%). In different combinations, the favoured learning modes were kinesthetic (70%), read/write (60%), aural (57%) and visual (55%). Around 89% of-A‖ level students, compared with 66% of those who had done FSc were multimodal (p=0.002). The preference for multiple learning modes increased with the transition from pre-clinical first and second years to the clinical third and fourth years (p= 0.006). Conclusion: Medical students prefer multiple variety of information transfer. For a better impact, learning style diversity can be converted into appropriate teaching and learning methods that enable more students to attain success.

No abstract

Background: The present study was designed to compare the knowledge gain of students in lectures and peer assisted learning (PAL) via end of course test scores. The purpose of this comparison was to assess the ability of PAL in enhancing academic achievement and to consider its addition within the traditional medical syllabus. Methods: A randomized control trial (RCT) was conducted at Department of Community Medicine, Lahore Medical and Dental College in 2014. Convenience sampling was used and out of 125 fourth year MBBS students, those who agreed to take part in the study (N = 99), were randomly allocated to PAL (n = 49) and lecture (n = 50) groups. Community Health & Nutrition was the course chosen for the study. Both lecture and the PAL sessions were conducted simultaneously and the duration and content covered in each session were the same for both groups. Knowledge gained was assessed through a pre-and post-test. Chi-square test, independent t test, paired t test and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used for data analysis. Results: The study participants demonstrated a significant difference in the pre-test and post-test scores in both the study groups (P ≤ 0.001). However, no statistically significant difference was found in the post-test scores between the Lecture and PAL groups, F (1, 95) = 0.584, P = 0.447. Gender and high school qualifications had no bearing on test scores in both learning groups. Conclusion: The present study concludes that in terms of academic achievements, PAL was equally effective to lectures. Therefore, PAL can be incorporated as a supplement to lectures in medical school curricula. Article info Please cite this article as: Daud S, Chaudhry AM, Ali SK. Lecture based versus peer assisted learning: quasi-experimental study to compare knowledge gain of fourth year medical students in community health and nutrition course.

Nursing is the backbone of health care delivery system. There are various factors which influence the choice of selecting nursing as profession. Objectives: (1) To find out the socio demographic profile of nurses working at Ghurki Trust Teaching Hospital (GTTH) Lahore. (2) To explore the reasons for selection of this profession. Study design: A cross sectional descriptive study. Duration of study: From October 2009 to January 2010. Setting: GTTH, Lahore. Subjects and Methods: All the nurses working in Ghurki Trust Teaching Hospital, Lahore are included in this study and their responses are obtained with a self administered questionnaire. Results: A total of 77 nurses participated in our study. The age distribution of these nurses has shown that a large number of nurses, 49 (63.6%) belonged to age group between 20 to 30 years.There were 26 (33.8%) nurses who had done B. Sc nursing. About 72 nurses (93.5%) have monthly income more than Rs.10,000. Majority of them, 48 (62.3%) are unmarried. 41 (53.2%) of the nurses selected this profession due to their own personal interest, 15 nurses (19.5%) selected this profession due to their parental influence. 12 nurses (15.6%) selected this profession for serving humanity. 9(11.7%) selected thisprofession to support their family. Approximately 25 nurses (32.5%) said that there are other family members working in the same profession. It was noted that out of these 25 nurses, 10 (40%) had their sisters in the same profession. Conclusions: Nursing forms the backbone of health care delivery system of a country. Decision makers in health sector need to understand that human resource development. Particularly Nursingrequires revolutionary changes. As Public health policy makers, it is imperative that we investigate the reasons for selection of nursing profession to attract and retain these important partners in health care provision.

Objective: To assess the prevalence and determinants of depression in undergraduate medical students within their learning environment. Methods: The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the Lahore Medical and Dental College, Lahore, Pakistan, from May to June 2015, and comprised medical students of all the five professional years. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Section one of the questionnaire related to demographic information, section two comprised Patient health questionnaire-9 for screening depression, and section three was the Dundee ready education environment measure inventory to gather students' perceptions of their learning environment. Data was analysed using SPSS 22. Results: Of the 533 students, 206(39%) were males, 327(61%) were females, 213(40%) were of preclinical years and 320(60%) were of clinical academic years. Overall, 399(75%) students were found to be depressed. Of them, 255(64%) were females and 144(36%) were males. Among the students, 96(18%) had negative perception of their learning environment, and out of these, 91(95%) were found to be depressed. There was significant association of depression with female gender (p=0.037) and negative perception of the students of their learning climate (p<0.001). Conclusion: The prevalence of depression was found to be high among the medical students and it was associated with female gender and negative perception of the learning environment. Keywords: Patient health questionnaire-9, Depressive symptoms, Environmental determinants, DREEM inventory