METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among year 1 to year 5 medical students in a private medical university. A self-administered questionnaire was used with the 3 major domains of professionalism and ethics i.e. discipline plagiarism and cheating.
RESULTS: A total of 464 respondents responded to the survey and they included medical students from year 1 and year 2 (pre-clinical) and years 3-5 (clinical years). Majority of the students, 275 (59.2%) answered that they had not seen any form of unethical behavior among other students. The females seem to have a larger number 172(63%) among the same gender compared to the males. Majority 352 (75%) of them had not heard of the 'Code of Professional Conduct by the Malaysian Medical Council'. About fifty three (53.1%) of the students answered that the training was sufficient.
CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the perception of unethical behavior was 58.8% in the 1st year (pre-clinical) and it increased to 65.2% in the 5th year (clinical). The 3 main discipline issues were students do not show interest in class (mean 2.9/4), they are rude to other students (mean 2.8/4) and talking during class (mean 2.6/4). Despite the existence of unethical behavior among the students majority of them (71.7%) claimed that they had adequate training in ethics and professionalism. It is proposed that not only the teaching of ethics and professionalism be reviewed but an assessment strategy be introduced to strengthen the importance of professionalism and ethics.
METHODS: Pre- and post-participation questionnaires were distributed to near-peer tutors after their clinical skills teaching sessions with Phase I undergraduate medical students. The Peer Tutor Assessment Instrument questionnaires were distributed to the 1) students, and to the 2) near-peer tutors (junior and senior) after each teaching and learning session for self-evaluation.
RESULTS: The senior near-peer tutors felt that their participation in the programme had enhanced their skills (p=0.03). As a whole, the near-peer tutors were more motivated (Pre 5.32±0.46; Post 5.47±0.50; p=0.210) to participate in future teaching sessions but did not expect that having teaching experiences would make teaching as their major career path in the future (Pre 4.63±1.07; Post 4.54±0.98; p=0.701). The senior near-peer tutors were evaluated significantly higher by the students (p=0.0001). Students' evaluations of near-peer tutors on the domain of critical analysis was higher than self-evaluations (p=0.003).
CONCLUSIONS: Generally, the near-peer tutors perceived that they have benefited most in their skills enhancement and these near-peer tutors were scored highly by the students. However, senior near-peer tutors do not perceive that the programme has a lasting impact on their choice of career path.
OBJECTIVE: This research is to analyze the impact of stressors and its relevance on the learning outcome of HFPS as a teaching-learning tool for the management of emergency surgical conditions including trauma.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study is a Quasi-experimental time series design. A total number of 347 final-year undergraduate (MBBS) students of Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Malaysia. They were grouped and assessed individually by pre-test and post-tests on their knowledge, performance and associated stressor scores. The one-way repeated measure of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the statistically significant differences in total score at pre-test simulation and post-test-simulation sessions. Friedman test was used for assessment of individual components of stressors. Pre-test and post-tests scores were compared to note progress in confidence and stress reduction. P value <0.001 was considered statistically significant.
RESULTS: ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc analysis showed a statistically significant (p <0.001) difference in stressor score over time. The drop-in stress was significant initially but flattened out later.
CONCLUSION: Stress significantly decreased as the students were exposed to more sessions of HFPS which ultimately translated into better learning outcome.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 122 year 4 medical students responded to this study. The Attitudes Towards Mental Illness (AMI) and Attitudes Towards Psychiatry (ATP) questionnaires were administered before and after an 8-week attachment in psychiatry.
RESULTS: We found that students had somewhat favourable attitudes towards psychiatry and mental illness at the start of their attachment, with a mean score of 108.34 on ATP (neutral score, 90) and 68.24 on AMI (neutral score, 60). There was a significant increase in the mean scores of both scales following the psychiatric attachment for female students (ATP: P = 0.003; AMI: P <0.0005), but not male students (ATP: P = 0.435; AMI: P = 0.283).
CONCLUSIONS: An 8-week clinical posting of fourth-year medical students in psychiatry was associated with an increase in positive attitudes to mental illness and to psychiatry among female students but not among male students.