The first attempt at initiating problem-based learning as a method of teaching-learning at the University of Medical Sciences in Poznan, Poland.

The main objective of problem-based learning (PBL) is to provoke students to solve a new problem by themselves. The aim of this study was to investigate whether PBL was a better method of teaching basic and advanced life support to medical students compared with the classical method. The research was undertaken in 2002 in accordance with the European Guidelines 2000 and involved 36 medical students in year 4. The students were divided into two groups: experimental PBL group (17 students) and the control-classical method group (19 students). After the advanced life support course, the students wrote two tests to assess their knowledge on how to open the airway and how to perform basic and advanced resuscitation. The questions contained true or false answers. The students' skills of basic and advanced methods of opening the airway and advanced resuscitation were checked by practical tests. The Mann-Whitney test was used for statistical analysis. The experimental PBL group received significantly better results: 30-45 points (mean, 38.29 points) and 30-47 points (mean, 40.94 points) for the written and practical tests, respectively, compared with the control-classical group (22-34 points [mean, 29.36 points] and 22-35 points [mean, 28.63 points], respectively). Therefore, PBL offers a better method for teaching basic and advanced life support to medical students compared with the classical method.