Background: Misconceptions are mental models of phenomena that are at variance with accepted scientific models of these phenomena.
Aim: The goal of this study was to investigate the prevalence of some misconceptions among students about cardiovascular physiology and to evaluate the effectiveness of cardiovascular physiology teaching in alleviating these misconceptions.
Method: A descriptive-analytic survey was undertaken with 348 undergraduates from the fields of medicine, nursing, and biology. Students were divided into two groups on the basis of whether they had passed or not taken the cardiovascular physiology course. The students were asked to answer four questions relating to cardiovascular. Descriptive statistic analysis and two-tailed comparison of the proportions was used to analyze their answers.
Results: The prevalence of misconceptions about the left ventricular output versus the right ventricular output ranged from 80% to 98%. The misconception about pulse velocity compared with blood velocity in the vessels was 74% to 89%. Between 95% and 99% of answers to the effect of increased resistance on blood flow were incorrect in all groups. Between 69% and 73% of the students had trouble answering the question on parallel resistance and the effect of the removal of one limb on total peripheral resistance. For most of the questions, university lectures had no effect on alleviating these misconceptions.
Conclusions: These results indicate that there is a high prevalence of misconceptions among students about at least four cardiovascular concepts associated with cardiovascular physiology and that teaching has failed to alleviate these misconceptions.