Sabitha Vadakedath¹, Venkataramana Kandi^2,

Background: Undergraduate medical education constitutes the preparation of the students towards a broad understanding of human anatomy, physiology, and several other basic, allied, medical, and surgical subjects. Immunology is an integral, and interdisciplinary subject among them, which is generally perceived by the students as a complex one to understand and apply in practice. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was undertaken among the II MBBS students to understand their perception regarding learning experiences of immunology as a subject. The study included 157 students, and all had given oral consent to participate in the study. The data collected from the study were entered into a Microsoft Excel sheet and were used to analyze and generate graphs and tables. Results: More than 90% (n=157) of the students believed that immunology is an integral part of medicine and medical research, and 85% of the students felt that knowledge of immunology is essential while doing clinical practice. Only 58% of students had enjoyed the immunology learning process, and at least 20% of them were unsure if the knowledge in immunology will be of any help to understand other areas of medicine. Conclusions: Students perceive immunology as an important subject that helps them to practice medicine and research. A general perception prevailed among the students regarding the complexity of immunology as a subject, wherein most of them felt that the learning process could be further improved with the use of audio-visual aids and patient/case-oriented/practical teaching.

undergraduate, medical education, immunology, learning process