Methods: This is a comparative cross-sectional study on two cohorts of pre-clinical medical students who were selected by multiple mini interviews and personal interview, respectively. Their personality traits, emotional intelligence, perceived educational environment, and perceived stressors were measured using different measurement tools.
Results: Multiple mini interviews and personal interview demonstrated a similar ability to recruit medical students with a high level of emotional intelligence. The main advantage of personal interviews over multiple mini interviews in terms of personality traits is that it recruited candidates who had a higher level of conscientiousness trait. The main advantage of multiple mini interviews over personal interview on the educational environment is that medical students chosen by multiple mini interviews had a higher level of satisfaction with social aspects of medical training. Regardless of admission processes, the medical students were equally vulnerable to psychological distress due to various stressful events throughout medical training particularly related to academic loads.
Conclusions: This study provided evidence to support the outcomes that multiple mini interviews and personal interview have on medical students' emotional intelligence, personality traits, perceived educational environment, and perceived stressors during the pre-clinical medical training. Interestingly, personal interview had a better outcome on conscientiousness while multiple mini interviews had a better outcome on the social aspect.
OBJECTIVES: This study aims to compare student performance in MCQ and VSAQ and obtain feedback. from the stakeholders.
METHODS: Conduct multiple true-false, one best answer, and VSAQ tests in two batches of medical students, compare their scores and psychometric indices of the tests and seek opinion from students and academics regarding these assessment methods.
RESULTS: Multiple true-false and best answer test scores showed skewed results and low psychometric performance compared to better psychometrics and more balanced student performance in VSAQ tests. The stakeholders' opinions were significantly in favour of VSAQ.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: This study concludes that VSAQ is a viable alternative to multiple-choice question tests, and it is widely accepted by medical students and academics in the medical faculty.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire (content- and face-validated) survey was undertaken, classroom style, amongst final-year nursing students from selected Malaysian (n = 122, Response rate=97.6%) and Australian (n = 299, Response rate=54.7%) institutions. Quantitative data were analysed via Statistical Package for Social Science software (Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests, p ≤ 0.01).
RESULTS: Significantly more Malaysian nursing students, compared to those in Australia, reported having encountered patients with OH issues (98.4% vs. 82.9%), namely halitosis (87.7% vs. 62.2%), oral ulcers (63.1% vs. 41.1%), oral/dental trauma (36.9% vs. 21.1%) and caries in children (28.7% vs. 7.7%). Less than half of Malaysian and Australian nursing students reported that they received adequate OH training (48.4% vs. 36.6%, p ≤ 0.01), especially in detecting oral cancer (18.0.0% vs. 22.6%, p ≤ 0.01) and preventing oral diseases (46.7% vs. 41.7%, p ≤ 0.01). Students in both countries demonstrated positive attitudes and believed in their role in OH care. Most students agreed that they should receive training in OH, especially in smoking cessation and providing OH care for patients with special needs. They also opined that a standardized evidence-based oral hygiene protocol is needed.
CONCLUSION: Support for education and practice in this area of patient care suggested positive implications for further development of nurses' roles in OH promotion and management.
METHODOLOGY: An audio-recorded, semi-structured qualitative phone interview was conducted with the heads of 42 nursing schools across Australia (n = 35) and Malaysia (n = 7) during the 2015 academic year. Qualitative data were analysed via thematic analysis. Quantitative data, wherever appropriate, were measured for frequencies.
RESULTS: The response rate was 34.2% (n = 12) and 71.4% (n = 5) for the Australian and Malaysian subjects, respectively. Findings revealed that although all the nursing schools measured provided didactic and clinical training in oral health, curriculum content, expected learning outcomes, amount of clinical exposure and assessment approach lacked consistency. Most nursing educators across both countries perceived an overloaded curriculum as a barrier to providing oral health education. Whilst educators demonstrated their support for training in this area of care, they expressed the need for an established national guideline that highlights the educational requirement for future nurses in oral health maintenance and their scope of practice.
CONCLUSION: This study provides valuable information for further developing oral health education for nurses, to improve their competency and ultimately the health of the communities that they will serve.