Comparison of rates of smoking across countries revealed that students are more likely to begin smoking in medical school than to give it up and increase their cigarette consumption rather than decrease it. A cross-sectional survey of all consenting medical students in a private medical university in north Malaysia was conducted in 2008 to determine the prevalence and smoking habits among them. A self administered questionnaire which was returned to the investigators in a sealed envelope was used. Results were tabulated and analysed with SPSS version 13.0 software. The response rate was 83.3% (508/610). The prevalence rate for current smokers was 5.3% (27/508) and for ever smokers 9.3% (47/508). Factors significantly associated with smoking were gender (p<0.001), age group (p<0.001) and family income (p=0.003). The odds of being a smoker was 14 folds high when a family member smoked and the odds of being an ever smoker was almost 6 folds more when a family member smoked. Friends were the most common influence to start smoking and the most common reason to stop smoking among ever smokers. The reasons for not smoking among the never smokers were health concerns and the distasteful smell of cigarettes. A module on how to help medical students to stop smoking should be included in the curriculum of every medical school. This will not only help them become good educators but will prevent them from picking up the habit. Educational intervention should also include family members who smoke.
Key words: smoking, medical students, university, Malaysia
Being in medical school has always been regarded as highly stressful. Excessive stress causes physical and mental health problems. Persistent stress can impair students' academic achievement and personal or professional development. The aim of this study is to explore the nature of stress among medical students by determining the prevalence, sources and pattern of stress and the factors affecting it.
Case-based learning (CBL) is an interactive student-centered exploration of real life situations. This paper describes the use of CBL as an educational strategy for promoting active learning in microbiology.
Medical professionalism is now more crucial than ever. Recently, more and more misconduct among doctors widely portrayed and unashamedly publicized by the popular press. Medical Schools in Malaysia are working hard to rectify their weaknesses so that their products are competent and professional doctors. Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences (CUCMS) certainly views this matter seriously and has incorporated professionalism training or as we call it Affective Domain Training into the curriculum implemented in all phases of the medical education. An example is the innovative inclusion of Community Project in the curriculum of undergraduate psychiatry. Although it started off with wanting to get students involved in creating awareness amongst the public about mental illness, but through it, students attained exposure in leadership, team-working and communication skills as well as what it means to be altruistic, to work under stress, to be empathic and many more. The students themselves enjoyed it. Although the down side include extra time, money and manpower, it can be safely concluded that having a community project in psychiatry undergraduate curriculum or other specialties for that matter could be an innovative and enjoyable way to nurture medical professionalism.
The importance of incorporating medical (or health) informatics into the education of medical students and medical practitioners is being increasingly recognised. The advances in information and communication technology and the pervasion of the Internet into everyday life have important implications for healthcare services and medical education. Students and practitioners should learn to utilise biomedical information for problem solving and decision making based on evidence. The extensive introduction of electronic health information systems into hospitals and clinics and at the enterprise level in Malaysia and elsewhere is driving a demand for health professionals who have at least basic skills in and appreciation of the use of these technologies. The essential clinical informatics skills have been identified and should be incorporated into the undergraduate medical curriculum. It is recommended that these be introduced in stages and integrated into existing programmes rather than taught as a separate module. At the same time, medical schools should support the integration of e-learning in the educational process in view of the numerous potential benefits.
Objective: BigSib Students' Peer-Group Mentoring Programme was implemented as an innovative, interactive and integrated instructional method in the Universiti Sains Malaysia medical school curriculum designed to enhance and strengthen medical students training in soft skills and professional development. This study was conducted to evaluate first- and second-year medical students’ perceptions of and attitudes towards the Programme.
Methodology: A cross sectional study was carried on 314 medical students. Questionnaires assessing medical students' perceptions and attitudes towards the Programme were administered. Data were analysed by using SPSS version 12.
Results: 45.9 % of the students perceived the BigSib Students' Peer-Group Mentoring Programme as successful. More than 50% of the students are willing to participate in the Programme. About 60% of the students perceived it as an effective Programme in developing their soft skills and professionalism.
Conclusion: Medical students have positive attitudes toward the Programme and it is perceived as a successful and effective Programme in developing students' personal attributes. Similar peer-group mentoring programme may be considered relevant to be incorporated into the medical curriculum in the future.
The educational environment is widely considered to be a major factor affecting students' motivation and learning outcomes. Although students' perceptions of their educational environment are often reported, we are unaware of any published reports that relate this information to students' clinical competence, either self-perceived or objectively measured.
BACKGROUND: Most medical schools use simulated patients (SPs) for teaching. In this context the authenticity of role play and quality of feedback provided by SPs is of paramount importance. The available literature on SP training mostly addresses instructor led training where the SPs are given direction on their roles. This study focuses on the use of peer and self evaluation as a tool to train SPs.
METHODS: SPs at the medical school participated in a staff development and training programme which included a) self-assessment of their performance while observing video-tapes of their role play using a structured guide and b) peer group assessment of their performance under tutor guidance. The pre and post training performance in relation to authenticity of role play and quality of feedback was blindly assessed by students and tutors using a validated instrument and the scores were compared. A focus group discussion and a questionnaire assessed acceptability of the training programme by the SPs.
RESULTS: The post-training performance assessment scores were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the pre-training scores. The degree of improvement in the quality of feedback provided to students was more when compared to the improvement of role play. The acceptability of the training by the SPs was very satisfactory scoring an average of 7.6 out of 10. The majority of the SPs requested the new method of training to be included in their current training programme as a regular feature.
CONCLUSION: Use of structured self-reflective and peer-interactive, practice based methods of SP training is recommended to improve SP performance. More studies on these methods of training may further refine SP training and lead to improvement of SP performance which in turn may positively impact medical education.
Introduction: Task-based learning (TBL) has been accepted as an effective tool in teaching and learning activities in most medical schools. Many studies have looked at competencies and learning outcomes essential for undergraduates. Among the essential competencies are interpersonal skills and the ability to engage in a group discussion which this study has focused on. The evidence supporting higher interpersonal skills is however limited because many relevant competencies are hard to measure and require long observational periods.
Objective: To determine students’ self-perceived value of TBL in enhancing their interpersonal skills during the clinical phase.
Material and Methods: All students’ (semesters 6-10) in the clinical school of International Medical University (IMU) were invited to participate in this cross-sectional study done in December 2007 utilising a self-administered questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale. It assessed the students’ perception on TBL sessions conducted during their clinical attachments in the various disciplines. Mean-scores, standard deviations, and confidence interval were used.
Results: Response rate was 62%. The results indicated that students were favorable in their opinion on TBL as a suitable forum for active communication and participation in group discussion. The results also show that both male and female students’ have similar perception. As for the comparison according to semesters, this showed that students’ maturity does not influence their perception as well.
Conclusion: In conclusion, the study has shown positive students’ perception on the effect of TBL on acquired skills such as interpersonal communication. Our findings are consistent with many earlier studies which show students’ perception of the method of learning as important factor in the enhancement of their interpersonal skills which is fundamental to clinical practice. Further research is necessary; long-term and larger scale observational studies would undoubtedly be optimal to minimise response bias.
Background: Tertiary education environment has always been regarded as highly stressful to students. Medical training further adds to the already stressful environment. The stress of medical training was associated with negative consequences to the mental and physical health of medical students. We describe in this article a stress-management program known as the 'Medical Student Well-Being Workshop' in our medical school.
Methodology: The workshop was run over two half-days over a weekend. Prior to the workshop the society announced the workshop to the students and participation was voluntary. It was open to students from all years of the medical course except for first year students. A separate stress management workshop is planned for them.
Results: A total of 55 students participated in the workshop, out of which 55 (82%) were female students. The years of study were almost equally represented; 14 students (26%) from years two and three, 20 (37%) from year four and 6 (11%) from year five. All sessions were rated as highly useful; the lowest rated, the introduction session, obtained an overall usefulness rating of 3.73 out of the possible 5 (74.6%).
Conclusion: Medical Students Well-being Workshop is a promising intervention program in improving medical students' ability in managing stress. Perhaps similar approach can be considered relevant to be incorporated in other medical schools.
Introduction : Stress is part of our life. It can happen anywhere including in medical school. Medical school is perceived as being stressful because their difficulties in education, longest period of study and dealing with the patients. Stress can be perceive as negative or positive. Coping strategies are the method that we can use to prevent stress when it comes to us. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of stress and coping strategies among of medical students in National University of Malaysia, Malaysia University of Sabah and Universiti Kuala Lumpur Royal College of Medicine Perak.
Methods : This study involved 450 medical students through stratified sampling in which 150 medical students from each of the three universities. This study was conducted through self administered questionnaires. The questionnaires included were socio demographic factor, Personal Stress Inventory (using Stress Symptoms Scale with 52 items), BRIEF COPE (Coping Orientation for Problems Experienced with 28 items). The determination of cut off point for stress symptoms score was using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve.
Results : Response rate was 90.8%. The prevalence of stress among medical students were 44.1%. The contributory factors to the stress were financial problems, stress of up coming examination period, relationship problems with parents, peers, siblings and lecturers. Coping mechanisms which had significant association with stress includes self distraction, venting of emotion, denial, behavioral disengagement, humor and self blaming. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed a significant association (p
Background: The Medical Faculty of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) runs an undergraduate medical programme which is a combination of the traditional and the newer trends of medical curriculum. The IIUM curriculum in Phase I (Years 1, 2: preclinical) is integrated organ system based, with lectures being the main method of curriculum delivery and also incorporating problem-based learning (PBL) as one of the teaching-learning approaches. Methods: The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of PBL teaching-learning method in IIUM in achieving the aims of the medical school as viewed by the students. A total of 287 students from Phase I and Phase II (Year 3: clinical) participated in this study at the end of academic session 2006/2007. The questionnaires distributed consisted of 33 items with four different aspects of PBL being evaluated namely; i) PBL objectives, ii) assessment of performance of the facilitators, iii) assessment of the PBL packages and iv) preferred teaching-learning approach. Results: An average of 86.4 % of students agreed that PBL sessions achieved its aims of preparing students for professional training in the clinical years. Also approximately 80% of students felt that the facilitators fulfilled their roles as PBL tutors. Students were generally satisfied with the PBL packages prepared. However about 50% of Year 2 students did not look forward to PBL sessions and only about 20% of preclinical students wanted more PBL sessions to be scheduled. This latter finding differed as 60% of the clinical (Year 3) students wanted more PBL sessions to be implemented. A significant proportion of the students also believed that they needed some prior information about the PBL case in question in order to generate lively exchange of ideas in the first sessions. Preclinical students preferred lectured-based approach as compared to PBL in contrast to the clinical (Year 3) students of whom 57% (62) preferred the PBL teaching-learning approach. Nearly 80% of the Year 3 students found the exposure to PBL sessions during their preclinical years beneficial during the clinical year. Discussion: Although our findings supported the effectiveness of PBL as one of the teaching-learning approaches (as perceived by our students) there are a few areas of concern. These include believing that a prior knowledge of the topic in question is needed to generate a lively discussion; the group not being motivated; the group members confining themselves to individual assignments only; PBL not being supportive of on-going self- assessment; the consequence of a facilitator being too dominant; and cases constructed do not reflect real clinical scenarios. Despite agreeing to its effectiveness preclinical students still preferred lecture-based approach to the PBL as they are more confident with the knowledge as obtained through the former learning modality. Conclusion: PBL is an effective learning strategy and it contributes to the teaching-learning process of IIUM undergraduate preclinical medical programme which implements a non-Problem Based Curriculum. We are of the opinion that a combination of lecture sessions and PBL best suit the IIUM medical students.
Background: Historically, more men enrolled in medical schools than women. However, during the last few decades, there has been an increase in the number of women attending medical schools worldwide. Although a similar trend is seen, there is no documentation found in Malaysia. In this present study, we investigated if such gender enrolment differences occurred at our medical school. Methods: Information was obtained from Kulliyyah of Medicine student statistic for 2006/2007 section and graduates from 2001/2002 (1st batch) to 2006/2007. Results: Our study showed that more than half (60%)of our students are female and all students who received distinction in final year exam from 2002 till now are females although the number of males who needed to sit for the supplementary examination outnumbered the females during that period. Discussion: The feminization of medicine in International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) was similar to other studies worldwide. Further research should be aimed on comparison of the academic performance of male and female medical students and also choice of specialty chosen by men and women in our university.
Educational environment of an institution is the environment experienced or perceived by students and teachers. Individual students and teachers will respond differently to these subtle elements in their learning experience. Curriculum's most significant manifestation and conceptualisation is the environment. There is a proven connection between the environment and the valuable outcomes of students' achievement, satisfaction and success. If one wants to describe, assess or get a handle on the curriculum in a medical school, then the educational and organisational environment or total milieu associated with the curriculum and the medical school needs to be studied. Educational environment is one of the most important determinants of an effective curriculum. Educational environment fosters scholarly or intellectual activities; it encourages friendliness, co-operation and supportiveness. It also fosters the learning, growth and development of students. Students' perceptions of their educational environment are a useful basis for modifying and improving the quality of educational environment. Several research groups over the years have attempted to identify and quantify the presence and impact of rather intangible aspects of a learning environment. Each study has used different survey questionnaires to solicit student reactions.
A study was done between December 2005 and January 2006 to determine the prevalence of emotional disorders among medical students in a private medical school in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia and to determine the demographical characteristics, contributing factors and the key person consulted for emotional problems.
Matched MeSH terms: Schools, Medical/statistics & numerical data
In a survey of clinical students in two Malaysian medical schools, it was found that students used a wide variety of learning resources, but textbooks were still the primary source of their information. Students had positive views about clinical teaching and lectures but somewhat lower opinions on problem-based learning. They generally did not perceive lecturers as facilitators, role models and counselors. In spite of the stated curricular goals of promoting self-directed learning via problem-based learning, students in these medical schools were driven by the nature of examinations and focused mainly on clinical contents rather than the process of learning.
Universiti Sains Malaysia is the only institution in Malaysia which incorporates all fields of the neurosciences under one roof. The integration of basic and clinical neurosciences has made it possible for this institution to become an excellent academic and research centre. This article describes the history, academic contributions and scientific progress of neurosciences at Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Stress has been recognized one of the factors causing disease. About 70-80% of all diseases may be stress related. Thus, stress management can be a part of an early measure of disease prevention. A descriptive cross sectional, randomized study was conducted to determine the stress inducing factors among preclinical students (universal sampling) in a public university in Selangor, Malaysia from 24th April to May 2005. A total of 163 students (52.8% year 1, 36.8% year 2 and 10.4% year 3) were interviewed in the data collection process. The main reasons students entered - medical school was because of their own interest or ambition (65%) and family influence (20.9%). Majority (76.4%) suffered moderate to great stress over hot conditions in lecture hall, tutoriaV small group session rooms and laboratories while 53.4% suffered when using the other facilities like cafeteria, toilet and transportation:. Almost all (95.1%) felt that examination was the most stressful, followed by early clinical exposure sessions (68.1%), problem·based learning sessions (62.5%), hospital visitations (59.7%), tutoriay small group sessions (49.3%), practical class (44.5%) and attending lectures (3 8.5%). Musculoskeletal System was the most stressful module among the first year students, followed by Nervous System and Gastrointestinal System with the percentage of 94.2%, 90.7% and 88.4% respectively while, 95% of the second year students felt that General, Hemopoietic ci? Lymphoid and Nervous System are the most stressful modules. This study revealed that academic sessions and lack of conducive teaching and learning environment as the main stress inducing contributors to preclinical medical students.
Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is important and should be mastered by House Officers (HO). House officers who have just completed their studies are assigned to acute medical and surgical wards. If a patient in the ward has a cardiac arrest (CA), these doctors are usually the first to attend. Therefore an HO must be confident with CPR skills. They must be competent in performing CPR. The authors assessed 26 new HOs from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Hospital (HUKM) with respect to their self-perception about CPR skills, confidence level in performing CPR and knowledge in performing CPR. Knowledge was assessed by a questionnaire. We found that 16 of 26 (61.5%) assessed themselves to have inadequate knowledge and 46.2% had no confidence in performing CPR. The mean score of the written test was 5.7 ± 1.8. Seven out of 26 (27.0%) HOs had incorrect hand placement position for CPR. Only 4 and 9 out of 26 HOs had their sternal paddle and cardiac apex paddle positions correctly placed respectively. In conclusion, knowledge, perception of skills and confidence levels of HOs on CPR are inadequate and need further assessment and improvement. Medical schools need to review their CPR curriculum in order to prepare HOs adequately to work in emergency situations.