Abstract
Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic has underscored critical deficits in global health preparedness. Traditional lecture-based teaching is frequently criticised for its limited effectiveness in practical skills required for real-world crisis response, creating significant "readiness gap". Hence, this study was done to evaluate perceived necessity and importance of innovative teaching-learning methods for the pandemic module amongst medical undergraduates.
Methods: Qualitative needs assessment was conducted using an interpretive description approach to explore stakeholder perspectives regarding the existing pandemic management teaching module and public health preparedness training within the undergraduate Community Medicine curriculum. Three focus group discussions were held with 28 purposively sampled participants at tertiary care teaching hospital, comprising faculty from Community Medicine (n=10), medical students who had completed pandemic training (n=10), and students awaiting training (n=8). Data were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using manual thematic analysis.
Results: Analysis identified four central themes. First, profound theory-practice gap in existing teaching, inadequately preparing students for real-world scenarios. Second, simulation and gamification were widely endorsed as promising, engaging solutions for teaching complex skills like outbreak investigation. Third, significant implementation barriers were anticipated, including resource limitations (time, technology), faculty capacity gaps, and need for cultural contextualisation. Fourth, stakeholders advocated for fundamental shift in assessment strategy towards practical, formative methods like OSCEs and peer feedback to align with innovative teaching.
Conclusion: This study provides clear, stakeholder-driven mandate for transforming pandemic module through experiential learning. While simulation and gamification are seen as viable solutions, successful integration requires structured approach addressing faculty development, resource allocation, co-design with stakeholders and realigned assessment framework.