International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | December 2016 | Vol 3 | Issue 12 Page 3391 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Ingole AN et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2016 Dec;3(12):3391-3394 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article A study incorporating action research to enhance community based medical education Abhishek N. Ingole 1 *, Purushottam A. Giri 2 , Abhay B. Mudey 1 INTRODUCTION Action research is a natural way of acting and researching at the same time. It intends finding the solution to local problems encountered by the researcher team. It is executed as a natural cycle, which achieves twin outcome of action (e.g. change) and research (e.g. understanding). 1,2 Action research adds to the enthusiasm of community based interventions and learning as the deciders and doers of the interventions are same. It is best suited to be executed in place where we wish to achieve change like motivating the community and teaching students at the same time like community based medical education. 3-5 Community based learning can be effective if students’ participation is enthusiastic. Besides community is much benefited by active involvement of students in solving the health problems of rural community. 6 Incorporation of action research planned and implemented by students themselves may add to the enthusiasm in implementing community-based interventions. 7 This may also add in making community based medical education more effective. 4 Hence, the present study was carried out with an aim to enhance community based learning in medical undergraduates by promoting action research in village visits adopted under rural adoption scheme. ABSTRACT Background: Action research is a natural way of acting and researching at the same time and intends finding the solution to local problems encountered by the researcher team. Action research adds to the enthusiasm of community based interventions and learning when implemented by students as a part of community based learning. Methods: A medical education research was carried out involving 40 medical students visiting adopted village under CCHCP of JNMC Sawangi (Meghe) during the period of January to June 2015. Students were assessed on various skills associated with conducting action research, responses towards its utility and its felt need in community based learning was assessed on a five-point likert scale and consensus score was calculated based on the responses. Results: The study reported significant increase in the excellent test score and good test score and decrease in average test score and poor test score. So the performance of students improved from pre-test to post-test. Normalized gain (g) was 0.59, considered moderately effective. Conclusions: Students agreed to having achieved various skills in conducting research with good consensus scores and also agreed to a strong need to incorporate action research in community based medical education. Keywords: Action research, Community based medical education, Medical students 1 Department of Community Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Sawangi (Meghe), Wardha, Maharashtra, India 2 Department of Community Medicine, Indian Institute of Medical Science & Research Medical College, Badnapur, Jalna, Maharashtra Received: 07 October 2016 Accepted: 04 November 2016 *Correspondence: Dr. Abhishek N. Ingole, E-mail: ingole.abhishek@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20164261