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INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Community Based
Medical Learning (CBML) Programme of the Faculty of
Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura
(USJP) focuses on student training in a rural setting to
empower the medical graduates to provide quality health
care to the rural communities with minimal resources.
CBML Programme for the year 2015 was held at Kalutara
District as one week residential Programme from 19th to
25th July. Objectives were to assess the effectiveness of
CBML Programme with regards to knowledge, skills and
favourable attitudes of the students to work efficiently in
any primary care setting with limited resources.
METHOD: A pretested, structured, self-administered
. questionnaire with 22 questions was designed to assess
the knowledge about prevalent problems, health seeking
behavior of the people in this community and the facilities available and possible care provisions at primary
care level. There were some questions to assess the
skills and attitudes of the medical students to work in a
rural area. This was administered before and after the
CBML program to 146 Medical undergraduates. Data
was analysed using SPSS.
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RESULTS: Students showed a significant improvement
in all fields (p<0.05).They showed improved interest
in working in rural primary care setup and developed ]
confidence in working effectively in the rural healthcare ;
setting. Students admitted a significant improvement
in their knowledge in health seeking behaviours of rural ;
communities and gained confidence in acting as responsible member in the rural community.
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CONCLUSIONS: A CBML programme in a medical
curriculum significantly increases their knowledge, confidence and attitude towards working in rural primary
care settings. 1 Senior lecturer, Department.of Family
Medicine, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, 2Senior
lecturer, Department of Paediatrics, University of Sri
Jayewardenepura, 3Lecturer, Department of Family
Medicine, University of Sri Jayewardenepura 4Demonstrator, Department of Family Medicine, University of Sri
Jayewardenepura
