Rethinking How National Health Programmes Are Taught: Team-Based Decision Learning Versus Mini-Interactive Lectures Among Undergraduate Medical Students

Purpose: To compare the learning outcomes, learner engagement, and student satisfaction associated with team-based decision learning (TBDL), an adaptation of team-based learning, and small group discussion supplemented by a mini-interactive lecture (SGD-MIL) for teaching National Health Programmes to Phase III Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) students.Methods: A non-randomised quasi-experimental crossover study was conducted among 56 Phase III MBBS students at Government Medical College, Ernakulam, India across six National Health Programme topics.Students received TBDL for three topics and SGD-MIL for three other topics, with the teaching method reversed in the other posting batch.Immediate post-test scores were analysed topic-wise, and a linear mixed-effects model was used to estimate the overall effect of teaching method while accounting for differences across topics and repeated observations within students; teaching method and topic were included as fixed effects, with student specified as a random intercept.Short-term retention, learner engagement, and satisfaction were also assessed.Results: TBDL produced higher immediate post-test scores for the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), and Reproductive and Child Health (RCH), but not for the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD), National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme on Malaria (NVBDCP -Malaria), or National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme on Vector Borne Diseases Other Than Malaria (NVBDCP -Other VBDs).In a mixed-effects model using 296 scores from 55 students, the adjusted mean was 1.07 points higher with TBDL (95% CI: 0.53-1.61;P < 0.001), with a significant teaching method × topic interaction (P < 0.001).Short-term retention did not differ (P = 0.721), while TBDL was associated with higher engagement across all five domains.Conclusion: TBDL improved immediate learning for selected National Health Programme topics and consistently enhanced learner engagement, while short-term retention was comparable between methods.These findings support TBDL as a complementary, decision-oriented strategy for selected community medicine topics, particularly where learners must apply programme knowledge to realistic implementation decisions.