AIM: To explore the teaching effect of problem-based learning(PBL)on cultivating students' clinical thinking in clinical practice teaching of ophthalmology.

METHODS: A total of 141 clinical undergraduate students were selected to attend the ophthalmology course in the first semester of the 2017-2018 academic year, students were randomly assigned to the traditional lecture based learning(LBL)teaching group of 69 and the PBL model teaching group of 72 in the clinical practice class. The two groups of students studied the same courses at the early stage, and there was no statistically significant difference in college entrance examination scores, gender, age, and practice time of ophthalmology(P>0.05). At the end of the internship, the teaching effects of the two teaching methods were compared and analyzed by means of students' curriculum assessment questionnaire survey and the clinical examination results.

RESULTS: The evaluation of students' satisfaction with the training of various abilities of the course showed that the satisfaction of each ability of the PBL teaching group was higher than that of the traditional teaching group(LBL). Among these abilities, there were statistically significant differences in learning interest improvement, knowledge expansion ability, problem-solving ability and doctor-patient communication ability(P<0.05). The PBL group was higher than LBL group in terms of case analysis and skill operation in clinical assessment, and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).

CONCLUSION: PBL teaching method is more effective in clinical practice teaching of ophthalmology, which is beneficial to train clinical thinking and improve teaching quality.