Methods: At the end of the year, facilitators and learners were interviewed to elicit their opinions regarding the efficacy of the PBL process, as well as the problems they had experienced. Thereafter, possible alternatives and potential solutions were proposed.
Results: Problems identified were that facilitators were treating PBLs as traditional lectures, handing out information, confining discussions to their disciplines and not guiding learners to focus on relevant facts. Learners were inexperienced in the PBL process. They did not understand the concept of holistic patient care, used limited sources to gain information, and did not manage their self-study time effectively. Evaluation posed the biggest problem as it was necessary to rate individual learners, group dynamics, facilitator performance and the cases themselves.
Conclusions: Possible solutions include sending all facilitators for a structured training course followed by a detailed introductory session for the learners. Students will be evaluated on a written report submitted prior to the feedback session, on their participation in the group throughout all the sessions, and on an individual assessment following completion of the case. The style of the latter will be varied and reflective of the goals of each different case scenario.