Rajkumar G¹,
Anbarasi M²

¹Professor of Paediatrics,
²Professor of Physiology,
Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical
College & Hospital, Perambalur,
Tamilnadu, India

Abstract

• Introduction: Efficient time management is one of the essential skills, set for medical students. Action priority matrix helps the students to categorize their plans and avoid wasting time in unnecessary activities.
• Aim: This study is aimed to assess the time management skill among medical students and make them categorize their priorities.
• Materials and Methods: A total of 145 first MBBS students (60 boys and 85 girls) participated in this study. All the students were asked to answer the Time management questionnaire. After a brief session on time management, they were divided into 7 groups (20/20+ each) and were subjected to different group activities. The students were asked to prioritise their plans and actions based on action priority matrix. The scores were analysed using Microsoft Excel. Content analysis was done for the responses regarding priorities and feedback from the students.
• Results and Discussion: 74.48% had average and below average time management scores. The mean score among girls was 47.47 and among boys was 47.9. There was no significant difference between boys and girls (p=0.76). Content analysis of Action Priority matrix showed that most of the students wanted to plan and schedule their daily routine activities and follow them regularly. Also, most of the students identified social media as the main distractor.
• Conclusion: This study throws light on the need of time management workshops to students from the first year onwards since they have to accustom to the volumes of the subjects-related works within the given short period.

Keywords: action priority matrix, social media, time management