Design, implementation, and evaluation of an integrated PBL bridge course in basic medical sciences: a seven‑year project evaluation with longitudinal follow‑up
Randomized trial assesses clinical reasoning improvement in medical students, indicating effective knowledge integration.
Key Points
This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an integrated Problem-Based Learning bridge course on medical students' clinical reasoning and transition.
Designed a 36-hour integrated PBL bridge course for clinical medicine undergraduates after core basic sciences and before clinical clerkships.
Used a descriptive project evaluation design with quantitative surveys and open-ended comments across seven cohorts (N=1,072).
Conducted a longitudinal follow-up survey with 334 students during clinical training.
Student performance remained consistently high with all cohort means > 90; excellent rate was 81.06%.
No significant differences among cohorts (F(6,1065) = 1.178, p = 0.315).
Longitudinal follow-up showed students endorsed significant improvements in applying basic science to clinical issues (4.73 ± 0.45) and preparation for clinical transition (4.67 ± 0.47).