# Perception of Undergraduate Medical Students on Elective Posting Block-2: A Relative Importance Index Approach

## TL;DR

This study assesses Indian undergraduate medical students' perceptions of their elective postings using a ranking method called the Relative Importance Index.

## Contribution

The study introduces the Relative Importance Index to evaluate students' perceptions of elective postings in a novel curriculum.

## Key findings

- Role of preceptors and teamwork was ranked as the most important domain with an RII of 0.65.
- Negative response had the second highest RII at 0.52, indicating significant concerns among students.
- Learning benefits and satisfaction with electives were also notable but ranked lower than teamwork and preceptor roles.

## Abstract

Background

The elective module is a new addition to the undergraduate medical curriculum in India, in which students choose the specialty on their own, where they are required to spend eight weeks. This study aimed to assess students’ perception regarding their elective posting in Block-2 through the use of the Relative Importance Index (RII).

Methodology

This cross-sectional study included undergraduate students. Data were collected from 181 participants by using an online structured Google Forms questionnaire. Students were asked to provide their perception on elective posting Block-2 on five domains, i.e., learning benefits, role of preceptor and teamwork, satisfaction with the elective, perceived electives, and negative response, and the statements were ranked through calculation using the RII.

Results

The RII revealed that the most important domains were the role of preceptors and teamwork (0.65), followed by negative response (0.52), satisfaction with electives (0.45), learning benefits (0.43), and perceived electives (0.42).

Conclusions

Students perceived the role of preceptor and teamwork as the most important domain. The success of elective posting lies with the effort of medical teachers to execute and implement in such a novel way that each student becomes a lifelong learner.