Current Status of Quality Assurance Scheme in Selected Undergraduate Medical Colleges of Bangladesh

This descriptive cross sectional study was carried out to determine the current status of Quality Assurance Scheme in undergraduate medical colleges of Bangladesh. This study was carried out in eight (four Government and four Non- Government) medical colleges in Bangladesh over a period from July 2015 to June 2016. The present study had an interview schedule with open question for college authority and another interview schedule with open question for head of department of medical college. Study revealed that 87.5% of college had Quality Assurance Scheme (QAS) in their college, 75% of college authority had regular meeting of academic coordination committee in their college, 50% of college had active Medical Education Unit in their college, 87.5% of college authority said positively on publication of journal in their college. In the present study researchers interviewed 53 heads of department with open question about distribution, collection of personal review form, submission with recommendation to the academic co-coordinator, and annual review meeting of faculty development. The researchers revealed from the interviews that there is total absence of this practice which is directed in national guidelines and tools for Quality Assurance Scheme (QAS) for medical colleges of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Education Vol.13(1) January 2022: 33-39

Knowledge of and Attitude towards Primary Healthcare among Undergraduate Medical Students

OBJECTIVES: To assess undergraduate medical students’ knowledge of and their attitudes towards primary healthcare and to compare the knowledge and attitudes of students in public and private medical colleges as well as between different demographic groups of students. METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted in public and private medical colleges after an ethical approval was granted. Data was collected from 201 undergraduate medical students through a validated (by Chalmers et al. 1997) Primary Health Care Questionnaire (PHCQ) utilizing an online data collection platform of Google Forms. The link to Google Form was distributed via emails and social media links of participating colleges. Data was exported from Google Form into SPSS version 24 and analyzed. RESULTS: The total knowledge score of students ranged from 8 to 17 with the mean knowledge score of 12.62 (SD: 1.398). The total attitude score ranged from 59 to 82 for all the participants with the mean attitude score of 71.12 (SD=4.382). Comparison of knowledge scores showed higher scores in females than males (p=0.004), and significantly higher attitudes scores among private medical students than public (p=0.037). CONCLUSION: Medical students’ gender and setting of their medical studies showed significant influence on their knowledge of and attitudes towards primary healthcare.

Perceived Stress, Emotional Exhaustion and Burnout among Medical and Dental Undergraduate Students

Objective: to explore the level of perceived stress, emotional exhaustion and burnout among students of private dental and medical colleges in Lahore Method: This analytical crossectional study was designed and conducted, and data was collected using Emotional exhaustion scale (10 items; Cronbach’s alpha=.78),21 Perceived Stress Scale (14 items, Cronbach’s alpha=.80),22 and Maslach Burnout Inventory (15 items; Cronbach’s alpha=.79).23 Total sample was 150 undergraduate students (75 from medical college 4th year and 75 from dental college 4th year). Results: The results of independent sample t test revealed a significant difference between the level of perceived stress (t=-24.02, P=.020), emotional exhaustion (t=-18.51, P=.001) and burnout (t=12.871, P=.010) among medical and dental undergraduate students Conclusion: Perceived stress, emotional exhaustion and burnout was found more among students of medical colleges as compared to the students of dental colleges Keywords: Perceived stress, Emotional exhaustion, Burnout, Medical Professionals

Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Medical Education in India and its Scope on Distance Learning

The year 2020 was frightened with the fight against unprecedented Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic situations which impacted extreme changes in everyone’s lives. Particularly healthcare system was not ready to tackle public health emergencies on immediate declaration of COVID-19 outbreak by World Health Organization (WHO), later the lockdown situations have helped a lot to tackle the situations worldwide. Coming to the medical education in India, there are 272 government medical colleges with teaching hospitals and 260 private medical colleges including deemed universities in India, a good asset to India. Total of 76,928 of Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) students were getting admitted in to the colleges every year with an average intake of 150-250 students per college and per year. The COVID-19 pandemic has strengthened distance & e-Learning worldwide. Distance & e-Learning is defined as application of computer technology to deliver training, including technology-supported learning either online, offline, or both. This technology has also helped a lot to the medical education across the world including India.

Analysis of Common Clinical Practice Teaching Methods in Medical Colleges and Universities

Clinical practice teaching is an important part of medical education. For medical students in colleges and universities, the teaching method is mostly single before the teaching reform. Innovative clinical practice teaching methods have been implemented in colleges and universities with the deepening of the teaching reform in recent years.

Self-medication tendencies of patients visiting out-patient departments of Government homoeopathic medical colleges and hospitals in West Bengal, India

Background and aims: Self-medication is mostly prevalent in the low- and middle-income population segments of developing countries, thus reflecting the status of health services. Self-medication has frequently been held responsible for inducing drug resistance, higher cost of further treatment, and other complications. The World Health Organization (WHO) promotes self-medication in rural and remote areas to reduce the burden of health services. In this study, the researchers sought to establish the prevalence, consequences, and causes of self-medication. Methods: Multicenter, institution-based, cross-sectional study conducted with 456 participants in May, 2013 at the outpatient clinics of 2 Government homeopathic medical colleges in West Bengal, India. A pilot-tested structured questionnaire consisting of 12 self-administered questions in local vernacular Bengali was used; 8 were close-ended questions providing multiple answer options, while 4 were open-ended. Results: Overall, 12.7% of interviewees admitted to perform self-medication; 57.7% and 66.0% had appropriate knowledge of the medicines and dose regimens, respectively. Females (64.3%) predominated and self-medication was mostly found in age range 31-45 years old (32.5%). Conventional Western medicine (82.2%) was most preferred therapy, and fever (35.7%), hyperacidity (25.4%) and loose stool (24.3%) the most frequently reported complaints. The main causes for self-medication were feeling no need to consult doctor (32.5%), busy schedule (16.4%), family members advice (16.0%), over-the-counter (OTC) availability of medicines without prescription (12.5%), direct consumer pharmaceutical advertisement (12.1%), and high expenditure in private institutes (10.1%). The chi-square distribution of determinants across the two samples differed significantly. The tendency increased proportionately with literacy (Yates’ χ2=175.731; p=0.000) and poverty (Yates’ χ2=426.817; p=0.000). Conclusion: The results reflect the knowledge, attitude, and practice of self-medication among the participants. Further studies should be undertaken in larger samples and different populations.

Analysis and suggestions on medical educators’ roles

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the differences in the perception between professors and students regarding medical educators’ roles and discuss their desirable roles.Methods: A survey was administered to 116 professors and 379 students of the medical colleges from Dankook University and Hallym University. The subjects were given a self-created questionnaire designed to measure their perception of medical educators’ roles.Results: First, “student performance management” for professors and “teaching skill development” for students were recognized as the most essential medical educators’ role. Second, females students perceived the roles to be more important than males in eight of 10 roles.Conclusion: First, “student performance management” for professors and “teaching skill development” for students were recognized as the most essential medical educators’ role. Second, females students perceived the roles to be more important than males in eight of 10 roles.

Factors determining state of being overweight among the students of Government Medical Colleges of Punjab, Pakistan.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence and factors that make medical students of public sector colleges of Punjab, Overweight. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Settings: 12 different medical colleges of the government sector in Punjab, Pakistan by both online and physical survey using non-probability convenient type of sampling. Period: January 2020 to February 2020. Material & Methods: A total of 352 students from all five years of the academic course participated in this study. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was self-administered to the students after taking their consent. The data included demographic information, targeted questions on diet, personal health habits, illnesses, and family history. The data was analyzed by the statistical program SPSS version 21. Results: Out of the total population, 28.1% were male and 71.9% were female students. The median age was 21.0 years. The mean weight was 59.2 ± 11.54 kgs. 56.3% of the students were hostelites and 43.8% were day-scholars. The average pocket-money of the students was 10,150 PKR Per month. According to the body-mass index, about 11.9% of students were underweight, 12.8% were overweight, 2.3% were obese, and 62.5% were of normal weight. It was found that females were more likely to be overweight than males. Not following any specific diet appeared to be the cause of being overweight while following specific diets was a protective factor against overweight status. Year of study, accommodation status, meals per day, calorie intake, ceremonial eating, hours of sleep, and study had no effect on overweight. Overweight students did not have a significant family history of diabetes mellitus. Conclusions: Poor dietary habits and unhealthy lifestyles increase the prevalence of overweight status among medical students and pose them at increased risk of serious illness in the future. Nutritional counseling and healthy lifestyle awareness are recommended for better practice of health and learning among medical students.