EFFECTIVENESS OF STUDYING THE ELECTIVE COURSE “BASICS OF ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY” AT THE DEPARTMENT OF PROPEDEUTICS OF INTERNAL MEDICINE AND PHTHISIOLOGY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11603/m.2414-5998.2025.4.15862Keywords:
elective course; basics of electrocardiography; distance education.Abstract
Abstract. Elective courses are compulsory courses (as opposed to optional courses) that higher education students choose independently according to their interests, inclinations or future profession. The purpose of introducing elective courses into medical education is to provide students with a more complete and indepth understanding of certain complex topics and current issues in medicine. Elective disciplines for medical students at the preclinical and clinical stages of training are widely used in medical schools in many countries. At the same time, the range of available elective courses and their impact on the quality of medical education remains insufficiently researched in the scientific literature. Higher education institutions offer a block of compulsory disciplines and a block of electives, from which applicants choose a certain number of credits. The article highlights the features of the implementation of the elective course «Basics of Electrocardiography» in the educational process, including in the context of distance learning. Third-year students of the Ivan Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine were offered the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the basics of electrocardiography. The main objective of the elective course was to improve students' knowledge of the possibilities of electrocardiography in the diagnosis of cardiovascular pathology. The elective course «Basics of Electrocardiography» is important in shaping the professional competencies of medical students, especially future doctors. Mastering the principles of recording, analysing, and interpreting electrocardiograms is an integral part of clinical thinking and the basis for early diagnosis of cardiac pathology. The course pays particular attention to practical work with electrocardiograms and the development of decision-making algorithms based on their analysis. The COVID-19 pandemic and military actions have had a significant impact on the organisation of the educational process. Training was conducted remotely using the Microsoft Teams platform. To increase the effectiveness of training, teachers prepared a significant amount of visual and theoretical material with sets of electrocardiograms, which proved to be particularly valuable in the context of distance learning, especially during wartime.
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