Successful experience of using experimental model in the practical training of gastrointestinal physiology in medical students

Background: The aim of present study was to determine the effect of using the experimental model of induction of structural-functional disorder in the practical training of gastrointestinal (GI) physiology on the level of knowledge and attitude of medical students. Methods: The present study was a descriptive studyconducted on medical students for three consecutive semesters. Initially, students were divided into groups of 15 people and the experimental models of stress and peptic ulcer induction were explained theoretically using PowerPoint software. Then, for each group of students a rat, which was prepared on the same day as the stress ulcer model, was described after induction of anesthesia. At the end, students were asked to complete a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of 7 questions in a 5-point Likert scale. Results: The participants were 187 medical students with mean age of 20.28 ± 1.82 years. Students agreed “high” and “very high” with holding the laboratory for raising knowledge (90.4%), changing their attitude towards GI physiology (68.5%), enhancing their skills (54.5%), being interesting and innovative (89.9%), increasing their interest in learning the topics of GI physiological theory (75.7%), identifying "stress ulcer and peptic ulcer" (79.2%), as well as holding the sessions of the laboratory for the future courses (84.5%). Conclusion: Findings indicated that experimental work on live animals greatly enhanced students’ knowledge and learning. It seems that using animals should not be replaced entirely by virtual experiments; however, the combination of several teaching methods such as blended laboratories is recommended for some concepts and physiological processes including in GI physiology.