A cross-sectional survey of 400 medical students of multicultural backgrounds at the University of Malaya was conducted to understand their attitudes towards euthanasia and factors related to medical decisions and ethical reasoning concerning the prolongation of life, the right to die and euthanasia. The student respondents completed self-administered questionnaires that comprised of twelve questions with multiple stems addressing personal perceptions, knowledge, attitudes, and decisions about euthanasia and the relief of suffering. The majority of respondents (52%) were for the withdrawal of active therapy in a patient suffering from a terminal painful disease while 48% of them were against it. Seventy-one percent of the students involved in the study were against the idea of active euthanasia i.e. the administration of a lethal injection. However, 27% of the respondents felt that there was a moral justification to assist patients to die. Thirty-two percent of the respondents favoured the legalization of euthanasia in Malaysia while 67% of them were strongly against it. The majority (61%) of respondents would not practice euthanasia as a doctor nor would they have performed on themselves if or when it became legal. The main issue surrounding euthanasia that concerned the respondents was the misuse of it by unethical practitioners and they felt that further debate on the matter was essential, both within the local and international communities.
The study examined a conceptual model integrating existing knowledge on the linkages between life satisfaction, affect, purpose in life, and resilience with school engagement. This model posits direct relationships between all the social psychological variables and school engagement, and also indirect relationships between life satisfaction and school engagement as mediated by all the other variables in the study. The participants were 2381 students (1119 boys and 1262 girls) with average age of 15 years, from 40 national secondary schools in Malaysia. The findings supported the theoretical conceptualization. All variables were positively associated with school engagement. The strongest relationship was observed between overall life satisfaction and school engagement. The mediating model was partially supported. The study reiterates the adage that "it takes a village to raise a child". Implications for practice and future research are discussed in the context of engagement in school learning.
Malaysia suffers from a chronic shortage of human organs for transplantation. Medical and nursing students (MaNS) are future health professionals and thus their attitude toward organ donation is vital for driving national donation rates. This study investigates MaNS' willingness to donate organs upon death and the factors influencing their willingness. A cross-sectional design was used with a sample of 500 students (264 medical and 236 nursing) at the University of Malaya. A self-administrated questionnaire was used. The responses were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression. Of all respondents, 278 (55.6%) were willing to donate organs upon death, while the remaining 222 (44.4%) were unwilling to donate. Only 44 (8.8%) had donor cards. The multiple logistic regression revealed that the minorities ethnic group was more willing to donate organs than Malay respondents (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.98, P = 0.010). In addition, medical students were more willing to donate than nursing students (aOR = 2.53, P = 0.000). Respondents who have a family member with a donor card were more willing to donate than respondents who do not (aOR = 3.48, P = 0.006). MaNS who believed that their religion permits deceased donation were more willing to donate than their counterparts (aOR = 4.96, P = 0.000). Household income and sex were not significant predictors of MaNS' willingness to donate organs upon death. MaNS have moderate willingness, but low commitment toward deceased organ donation. Strategies for improving MaNS' attitude should better educate them on organ donation, targeting the most the Malay and nursing students, and should consider the influence of family attitude and religious permissibility on MaNS' willingness.
Study site: University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Translation of research evidence into public health programs is lagging in Eastern Mediterranean Region. Graduate level public health curriculum at King Saud University (KSU), College of Medicine, Riyadh, is designed to equip students to integrate best available evidence in public health decision making. The objectives of study were to explore students' opinion about the evidence based public health (EBPH) courses and to survey the knowledge, opinion, and attitude of the students towards EBPH and perceived barriers for implementation of EBPH in decision making in public health. EBPH courses are designed based on a sequential framework. A survey was conducted at the completion of EBPH courses. Forty-five graduate students were invited to complete a validated self-administered questionnaire. It included questions about demography, opinion, and attitude towards EBPH and perceived barriers towards implementation of EBPH in the work environment. The response rate was 73%. Mean age of students was 30.1 (SD 2.3) years, and 51% were males. More than 80% had sound knowledge and could appreciate the importance of EBPH. The main perceived barriers to incorporate EBPH in decision making were lack of system of communication between researchers and policy makers and scarcity of research publications related to the public health problems.
This paper is aimed at finding if there was a change of correlation between the written test score and tutors' performance test scores in the assessment of medical students during a problem-based learning (PBL) course in Malaysia. This is a cross-sectional observational study, conducted among 264 medical students in two groups from November 2010 to November 2012. The first group's tutors did not receive tutor training; while the second group's tutors were trained in the PBL process. Each group was divided into high, middle and low achievers based on their end-of-semester exam scores. PBL scores were taken which included written test scores and tutors' performance test scores. Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated between the two kinds of scores in each group. The correlation coefficient between the written scores and tutors' scores in group 1 was 0.099 (p<0.001) and for group 2 was 0.305 (p<0.001). The higher correlation coefficient in the group where tutors received the PBL training reinforces the importance of tutor training before their participation in the PBL course.
PURPOSE: The goal of this study was to compare the knowledge and attitudes of pharmacy and medical students regarding adverse drug reactions (ADRs), as well as their perceptions of barriers to ADR reporting, in a Higher Education Commission-recognised Pakistani university.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among final-year pharmacy (n=91) and medical (n=108) students in Pakistan from June 1 to July 31, 2014. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. The responses of pharmacy students were compared to those of medical students.
RESULTS: Pharmacy students had a significantly better knowledge of ADRs than medical students (mean±SD, 5.61±1.78 vs. 3.23±1.60; P<0.001). Gender showed a significant relationship to knowledge about ADRs, and male participants were apparently more knowledgeable than their female counterparts (P<0.001). The attitudes of pharmacy students regarding their capability to handle and report ADRs were significantly more positive than those of medical students (P<0.05). In comparison to pharmacy students, a lack of knowledge of where and how to report ADRs was the main barrier that medical students perceived to ADR reporting (P=0.001).
CONCLUSION: Final-year pharmacy students exhibited more knowledge about ADRs and showed more positive attitudes regarding their capacity to handle and report ADRs than final-year medical students.
KEYWORDS: Comparison; Medical; Pakistan; Pharmacovigilance; Pharmacy; Students
Learning styles and approaches of individual undergraduate medical students vary considerably and as a consequence, their learning needs also differ from one student to another. This study was conducted to identify different learning styles and approaches of pre-clinical, undergraduate medical students and also to determine the relationships of learning preferences with performances in the summative examinations.
A total of 356 doctors responded to a survey on the timing and stability of choice of medical specialty. The majority of doctors made their final decision while working as a medical officer. One hundred (48.5%) of the doctors had made an earlier choice as medical students, 63 (30.6%) during their internship and 43 (20.9%) made their final choice while they were medical officers. Working experience in the specialty was the most important factor in determining final choice of specialty. Advice from consultants/seniors, better financial prospects and parental influence were more important for the male doctors while marriage and family considerations were more important for the female doctors in making their final choice.
A longitudinal study was conducted to determine changes in knowledge, attitudes and preventive efforts of Malaysian medical students concerning cigarette smoking and environmental exposure to tobacco smoke from their first pre-clinical year in medical school until their final clinical year. There were significant improvements in knowledge about cigarette smoking and in knowledge, attitudes and efforts concerning environmental exposure to tobacco smoke. Overall attitudes concerning cigarette smoking did not change over this period. The same pattern was found for male non-smokers. Women improved on all five scales; male smokers improved on none over the 3-year period. Male non-smokers had better scores on these scales than male smokers in both beginning and ending years. Women excelled in comparison to male non-smokers on smoking attitudes in the pre-clinical year and on all scales except preventive efforts in the final clinical year.Although medical students experienced no changes in the amount of pressures not to smoke from family and friends, there was a significant increase in the amount of prohibition on smoking from their teachers. Male non-smokers alone accounted for this increase. Women experienced more pressure than men not to smoke from their teachers in both years, but the male smokers and non-smokers did not differ in teacher pressure for either year.
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this survey was to obtain a self-reported assessment of the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by medical students at the International Medical University, Malaysia.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Students' perceived skills and extent of usage of ICT were evaluated using a questionnaire. Chi-square analysis were performed to ascertain the association between variables. Further statistical testing using Chi-square test for trend was done when one of the variables was ordered, and Spearman rank correlation when both variables were ordered.
RESULTS: Overall, (98%) of students responded to the questionnaire. Twenty seven students (5.7%) did not use a computer either in the university or at home. Most students surveyed reported adequate skills at word processing (55%), e-mailing (78%) and surfing the internet (67%).
CONCLUSION: The results suggests that in order to increase the level of computer literacy among medical students, positive steps would need to be taken, for example the formal inclusion of ICT instruction in the teaching of undergraduate medicine. This will enhance medical students' ability to acquire, appraise, and use information in order to solve clinical and other problems quickly and efficiently in the course of their studies, and more importantly when they graduate.
Negative attitudes towards people with mental illness can be attributed to stigma. The objective of this study was to determine the attitudes of medical students towards mental illness by comparing those who have had contact with mental patients and those who have not. This study also assesses to what extent knowledge about mental illness can affect the students' attitude.
The objective of this study was to measure the knowledge of childhood asthma among medical students and paramedics. A previously validated questionnaire about childhood asthma was completed by 281 of 314, third and fifth year medical students at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Their knowledge of asthma was assessed during the first and last weeks of their paediatric rotation. A similar questionnaire was completed by 23 of 60 paramedics from various medical disciplines in Hospital Kuala Lumpur. They had attended a two-day seminar on respiratory diseases and their knowledge was assessed prior to and six weeks after the seminar. On the initial assessment the mean score for the final year medical students was 24.5, third year medical students 20.9 and paramedics 18.3. After intervention their mean scores increased significantly to 26.3 (p < 0.0001), 24.6 (p < 0.0001) and 21.3 (p < 0.0001). After intervention, the final year medical students improved significantly in all questions except in the management of acute asthma. Post intervention, third year medical students showed a significant increase in knowledge pertaining to symptomatology, pathophysiology, trigger factors and prophylactic drugs used in asthma management. Although the knowledge of paramedics improved post intervention, they had major deficiencies in knowledge about pathophysiology, trigger factors, preventive and acute asthma therapy, side effects of asthma treatment as well as clinical scenarios. Improvement after intervention was only seen in six of the 31 questions. This study demonstrated an increase in knowledge about childhood asthma among medical students and paramedics after a short intervention.
One hundred and twenty-eight medical students who had experienced a traditional-style preclinical curriculum completed three self-report questionnaires. Using factor analysis of students' responses this study explores interactions between study orientation, preferences for different kinds of learning environment, and evaluations of the physiology course. Such interactions can provide insight into the reasons why students fail to adopt effective learning strategies. Although many students had the intention to understand, they did not adopt a deep approach. Achievement motivation was strong, test anxiety high, and the course was perceived to be competitive. The meaning orientation merged with the achieving orientation; students were thus performance rather than task oriented. These students perceived the course to have been challenging, as did students within the reproducing orientation and who had 'surface' preferences. Students within the non-academic orientation had difficulty coping with the course. The findings suggest that conventional teaching and assessment methods are preventing students from developing appropriate criteria and internal standards for evaluating performance. An illusion of comprehension may prevent students from seeing the need to adopt more effective learning strategies and cause 'good' students with the ability to adopt a deep approach to abort the pursuit of deep understanding. Students' preferences and evaluations of teaching and assessment indicate that students within the different learning orientations have different educational needs. The implications for instruction and evaluation are discussed.
The purpose of this study is to explore the types of problem students that clinical teachers encounter in clinical settings. A questionnaire developed by the Association of American Medical Colleges that lists a variety of types of problem students was completed by 466 clinicians at the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) and 98 Malaysian clinicians from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). In addition, 120 medical students from UKM completed a slightly modified version of this questionnaire. Both the faculty and student questionnaires asked the respondent to identify the frequency of a given problem type. The faculty was also asked to estimate how difficult it was to evaluate a specific problem. In general, there was strong agreement among the North American and Malaysian faculty on the frequency and difficulty of the 24 types of problem students listed. There were some notable differences, such as Malaysian teachers perceiving the "shy" student more frequently than their North American counterparts who rated the student with deficits in knowledge more frequently. However, the overall similarity in the rankings suggest that clinical teachers face similar types of problems, independent of cultural differences and institutional differences.
As future health care providers medical students should acquire an adequate knowledge of bronchial asthma before graduation from medical school. The aim of this study was to assess whether knowledge about childhood asthma increased during the medical course. The 590 medical students enrolled in the School of Medical Sciences, University of Science Malaysia during the 1995/96 session were studied utilizing a validated questionnaire. There was a significant increase in the mean total scores from 11 (95% CI 10.5-11.6) in Year 1 to 23.4 (95% CI 22.9-24) in Year 5. Questions about symptoms of asthma, pathogenesis of airway narrowing during acute exacerbations, preventive and reliever medications, side effects of steroids, addiction to asthma drugs and assessment of severity revealed a progressive increase in knowledge over the five years. Among 5th year medical students 44.6% named infection and 65.1% named exercise as two common triggers of childhood asthma; only 30.1% could name two prophylactic drugs for asthma. Although the asthma knowledge of medical students increased progressively during the five year curriculum, their knowledge regarding trigger factors and preventive medications were deficient. As childhood asthma affects some 10% of Malaysian children its importance requires greater emphasis in the medical curriculum.
This study deals with personality variables of medical students in relation to their academic success in the preclinical stage. One hundred and one students completed the 16PF Questionnaire at the beginning of their medical course and the scores were analysed in relation to their marks obtained at the end of the 2-year preclinical stage. This study shows that the 16PF Questionnaire can be a useful instrument for identifying personality variables in candidates who are likely to have academic problems and those who are likely to do well in the preclinical stage of a medical course. Students of urban origin and the eldest in the family performed better in their preclinical years. Performance was not related to sex, ethnic group, family size of entrance qualification into medicine. Personality variables of being enthusiastic, venturesome, self-opinionated, imaginative, experimenting, resourceful and driven correlate positively with performance, whereas being self-assured has negative correlation. Problem students were more reserved, emotionally less stable and more apprehensive than non-problem students.
A questionnaire was administered in class to a sample of physical education students at a Malaysian University in order to determine their beliefs and use patterns regarding vitamin supplementation. About a quarter of the subjects (24.6%) had practised vitamin supplementation for the past two years prior to the study, 14.9% of them being females as opposed to only 9.7% males. The most frequently used vitamin supplements, in rank order, were multivitamins (used by 57.6%), vitamin C (24.2%), the B-Complex vitamins (9.1%), and vitamin E (6.1%). Among vitamin supplementeers, the most frequently cited reasons for using vitamin supplements, in rank order, were 'to supplement the daily diet' (33.3%), 'to prevent colds' (27.3%), and 'to prevent fatigue or lethargy' (21.2%). Among non-supplementeers, the three reasons most frequently mentioned for not using vitamin supplements were 'vitamin needs are adequately supplied by daily meals' (50.5%), 'I am healthy enough and therefore I do not need extra vitamins' (27.2%), and 'fear of insidious side effects' (9.9%). In general, both supplementeers and non-supplementeers tended to believe in the purported health benefits of vitamin supplementation. However, on the whole, supplementeers were willing to change their supplementation habits.
On the basis of a questionnaire on smoking behaviour, knowledge and attitudes administered to medical students in the University of Malaya in July 1987, the prevalence of smoking was found to be low (10%) among medical students. Smokers and non-smokers were equally well informed about common smoking complications. Most students, irrespective of smoking status, felt that they would as future doctors, often advise sick smokers against smoking. In contrast, less than half would do so for healthy smokers who do not themselves raise the question of smoking. The students' personal smoking behaviour also influenced their view of their professional role. Appropriate values, attitudes and a preventive approach towards smoking need to be further developed in the medical students' thinking and behaviour.
This study investigated whether knowledge and attitudes of Malay college students regarding smoking can be positively influenced by educational intervention. The experiment included a pretest to assess the students knowledge and attitudes regarding smoking, a lecture on the health risks associated with smoking, and a posttest given six weeks later to assess whether any changes had occurred. A profile of the typical Malay student smoker was also elicited. Twenty-seven percent of the study population were smokers. Of the men in the sample, 44% were smokers, while less than 4% of the women were smokers. T-tests indicated that knowledge of the health risks associated with smoking was significantly improved for most groups, while attitudes towards smoking were essentially unchanged.