AIM To analyze the factors influencing the quality of teaching electrocardiography (ECG) in physical diagnosis to undergraduate students at a military medical university and to explore a new teaching system for electrocardiography.

METHODS  In December 2023, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 187 students majoring in the five-year-program clinical medicine, anesthesia or psychiatry at the university. The survey mainly focused on three aspects: teaching methods (dispersed teaching, multimedia and large-class teaching), students’ self-improvement (mastery of basic theory and practical operation of electrocardiography) and quality of instructors (instructors’ ability level and humanistic care), and SPSS 25.0 statistical software and WPS Excel office software were used for data analysis.

RESULTS  The comprehensive evaluation of the quality of ECG teaching showed that the majority of students (93.5%) were fairly satisfied with the ECG teaching. In terms of teaching methods, the satisfaction rate of the dispersed teaching mode was significantly higher than that of the large-class teaching and multimedia teaching methods (90.9% vs. 20.8% vs. 21.9%, respectively). Students were less satisfied with their own ECG interpretation ability and self-improvement (43.3% and 19.3%, respectively), but most students (97.8%) acknowledged their instructors’ competence and humanistic care.

CONCLUSION  In the teaching process of ECG, class size, teaching mode, quality of instructors and students’ own interest are the key factors influencing the teaching quality of ECG. By retaining components that satisfy students and integrating the current widespread dissemination of networking and information technology, a novel ECG teaching system can be explored based on these premises.