Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Structured Educational Program on Improving the Knowledge of COVID-19 Among the Vaccine-Reluctant Population in a Block of Jharkhand, India.

Background Low vaccination uptake is a major public health concern and is more prevalent in rural areas. Educational interventions have been proposed as an effective strategy to increase vaccine acceptance. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of an educational program on acquiring knowledge for promoting vaccination uptake among a sample of participants. Methodology This study was conducted in a rural area in the state of Jharkhand, India. The study period was from July 2022 to September 2022. The area was surveyed for COVID-19 vaccination and a total of 510 people did not take any dose or took only the first dose and then skipped the second dose. An educational program was designed in the local language. The knowledge of the sample was assessed before and after a week of intervention with a surveyor-administered questionnaire. The vaccination status before and after the intervention was also recorded. We used the chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, and binomial test for comparing the categorical variables. Results A total of 178 participants' data were analyzed. The majority of the participants were in the age group of 18-25 years. The pre-intervention score regarding the knowledge of COVID-19 and vaccination was 18.93 ± 5.10 which significantly increased after the intervention to 25.06 ± 4.35 (p <0.0001). The number of individuals receiving vaccination significantly increased. Before the program, 95 participants did not take the vaccine and 83 received the first dose and did not take the second dose. After the program, 17 participants did not take the vaccine, 161 completed the first dose, and 112 completed the second dose (p <0.0001). Conclusions The educational program was successful in improving knowledge and awareness about vaccination, leading to an increase in the number of individuals receiving vaccination. These findings suggest the importance of educational interventions in the local language in promoting vaccination uptake and can be used to design effective public health campaigns to increase vaccine acceptance.

Evaluation of Blended Learning Method Versus Traditional Learning Method of Clinical Examination Skills in Physiology Among Undergraduate Medical Students in an Indian Medical College.

Introduction Clinical skills are crucial for medical professionals and are a vital part of a physician's identity. Medical students start learning these skills during their pre-clinical years of study. However, little research has been done on how novice medical students learn to improve these skills. Along with traditional teaching-learning methods, an approach to incorporating e-learning into medical education is through blended learning, which combines traditional classroom instruction with online learning activities. Objective This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of blended learning and traditional learning methods in teaching clinical examination skills to first-year undergraduate medical students by evaluating the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) test scores. Methodology This was a two-arm prospective cross-over randomized study involving first-year MBBS students. The experimental group (group A) received blended learning, while the control group (group B) received traditional learning for the cardiovascular system examination (phase 1). The groups were then switched for the respiratory system examination (phase 2). An unpaired student t-test was used to compare the mean OSCE scores between the experimental and control groups in each phase, with statistical significance defined as a p-value < 0.05. Results The study involved 25 students in each group during phase 1 and 22 students in each group during phase 2. The experimental group had a mean age of 18.4 (±0.96) years in phase 1 and 18.35 (±1) years in phase 2, while the control group had a mean age of 18.06 (±1.04) years in phase 1 and 18.55 (±0.74) years in phase 2. In phase 1, the experimental group had a higher mean OSCE score (43 {±2.92}) than the control group (26.4 {±2}) (p <0.001). After switching in phase 2, the experimental group (previously the control group) had a higher mean OSCE score (47.82 {±1.68}) than the control group (33.59 {±1.59}) (p <0.001). Conclusion Blended learning is more effective than traditional learning in teaching clinical examination skills to medical undergraduate students. This study suggests that blended learning has the potential to replace the traditional method of learning clinical skills.