An Innovative Teaching Approach for Diabetes Mellitus in Laboratory Medicine Uses the Clinical Laboratory Diagnostic Pathway

J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2023 Dec 25:10:23821205231219396. doi: 10.1177/23821205231219396. eCollection 2023 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: The routine teaching mode of diabetes mellitus (DM) is divided into various sub-majors of medical laboratory, which is not conducive to clinical laboratory physicians quickly mastering relevant knowledge. A novel DM laboratory testing pathway is established to improve teaching efficiency and enhance the effects of talent cultivation in laboratory medicine.

Methods: The guidelines and expert consensuses of DM were gathered from professional websites and databases. The clinical laboratory diagnostic pathway was formulated, and the questionnaire and mutual evaluation were used to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of 8-year undergraduate students enrolled in 2018 and enrolled in 2019, respectively.

Results: Clinical laboratory physicians developed and approved the DM clinical laboratory diagnostic pathway, which included the entire process of DM diagnosis and differential diagnosis, drug selection, treatment impact monitoring, prognosis evaluation, etc. The results of the questionnaires showed that, in comparison to the teaching mode used with the students enrolled in 2018 and enrolled in 2019, the percentages of more improvement and significant improvement were significantly increased (P < 0.01) and the percentages of no improvement and slight improvement were significantly decreased (P < 0.01). Following the instruction of the DM clinical laboratory diagnostic route, the results were greatly improved, including points emphasized and the accuracy of responding to questions, among other things, according to the teachers' and students' mutual evaluation (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: To enhance the teaching quality in laboratory medicine, it is required to build the disease clinical laboratory diagnostic pathway for a novel teaching method. This may boost teachers' and students' confidence and broaden their knowledge.

Keywords: Clinical laboratory diagnostic pathway; diabetes mellitus; laboratory medicine; teaching mode.