The Ayurveda Education in India: How Well Are the Graduates Exposed to Basic Clinical Skills?

Table 1

Items covered in the final questionnaire along with the mean scores of the two groups for each item.

	Item	Group	Mean  ±  SD	P
Q1	Students are not trained to handle the clinical emergencies of primary healthcare level through Ayurvedic methods.	Students Teachers	4.65  ±  0.702 4.35  ±  0.977	.000
Q2	Students are not exposed to any successful Ayurvedic method of primary healthcare in the management of infectious conditions like malaria and tuberculosis.	Students Teachers	4.29  ±  0.981 4.04  ±  1.122	.000
Q3	Students are not exposed to any successful Ayurvedic method of primary healthcare in the management of poisoning.	Students Teachers	4.62  ±  0.721 4.46  ±  0.808	.001
Q4	Students are not exposed sufficiently to the basic clinical skills and procedures like incision and drainage, suturing and catheterization.	Students Teachers	3.48  ±  1.438 3.21  ±  1.387	.004
Q5	Students are not trained sufficiently to conduct normal delivery.	Students Teachers	3.84  ±  1.306 3.32  ±  1.347	.000
Q6	Students are not exposed to a large variety of cases because patients visiting Ayurvedic institutions belong to only few identifiable categories like those complaining of joint pain, ano-rectal diseases, stroke, and so forth.	Students Teachers	3.75  ±  1.232 3.24  ±  1.342	.000
Q7	Students are not exposed sufficiently to the basic modern knowledge of the subjects like physiology, pathology, biochemistry, pharmacology, medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics & gynecology, eye & ENT and surgery.	Students Teachers	3.66  ±  1.287 3.33  ±  1.304	.000
Q8	Students are not exposed sufficiently to the basic skills of interpreting ECG, X-ray and such other diagnostic tools and their clinical utility.	Students Teachers	3.98  ±  1.212 3.70  ±  1.242	.000
Q9	Students are not trained in the basic skills in the areas like genetic counseling, human sexuality, end of life care, geriatrics and drug and alcohol abuse.	Students Teachers	4.31  ±  0.894 3.98  ±  1.104	.000
Q10	Students are not trained sufficiently in the basic clinical methods related to Panchakarma, Kshara Sutra and Jalaukavacharana.	Students Teachers	3.29  ±  1.364 3.03  ±  1.338	.004
Q11	Students are not exposed sufficiently to the basic methods of physical examination, diagnosis and management of common clinical conditions, making them non-confident clinicians/practitioners.	Students Teachers	3.11  ±  1.403 2.83  ±  1.353	.002

The last column shows the results of independent samples t-test.