The College of Medicine at the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in Oman took up the challenge of moving away from a didactic emphasis in the teaching of family and community health by actively involving students in health care, requiring some clinical skills, as early as possible. This paper describes the experience of the Department of Family and Community Health at SQU of the feasibility of training first-year medical students in the measurement of blood pressure within a few days. Our experience showed that proper training before starting field-work can teach clinical skills to students who have had no prior exposure to medical subjects. There was a strong correlation between the measurements of blood pressure of 638 individuals by the students and the supervisors. This experience at SQU has encouraged us to implement the idea of family- and community-based clinical exposure for every class. Teaching of clinical skills is feasible in the field for new entrants, provided there is adequate orientation beforehand and skilled supervision of the students in small groups.

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This paper describes the efforts of the Department of Family and Community Health at Sultan Qaboos University in providing opportunities for the development of 'hands-on' problem-solving skills appropriate for Oman. The curriculum of the Department is discussed, highlighting the unusual emphasis of this discipline in both the preclinical and clinical curriculum of the College of Medicine. The importance of continuous assessment and supervision of students is discussed. Course-work in the preclinical curriculum of the Department is kept to a minimum. Field-work forms an important part of preclinical training, where application and problem-based learning are emphasized. During the clinical years the students are exposed to an integrated series of lectures and practicals covering core knowledge in clinical medicine. Practical clinical training, over a total period of 15 weeks, takes place at a variety of sites where common problems in primary health care in Oman are handled by students under supervision.

Background: Since December 2019, a deadly coronavirus epidemic has swept the globe. Due to the significant risk of infection, frontline health workers had to use Personal Protective Equipment, including hand hygiene products, to keep their hands hygienic. The present study aims to compare adverse skin responses between Health Care Worker (HCW) and Non-Health Care Worker (NHCW). Method: A descriptive, cross-sectional study of HCW and NHCW throughout the country was executed. A self-structured questionnaire was utilized to gather data from 404 HCWs and 826 NHCWs during a two-month period using multistage sampling. STATA (v16) was used to analyse the data. Result: 41.87% of the study participants experienced adverse skin reactions, which were more prevalent among HCW (65.10%) than NHCW (30.51%). The most often reported skin condition was skin dryness (34.39%), followed by skin peeling (11.71%). Users of alcohol-based hand sanitizers (ABHS) were more likely to get itch (8.13%), whereas soap water users were more likely to suffer skin peeling (35.74%) and rash (7.46%). There was a significant (p<0.001) association between occupation and adverse skin responses, with HCW being 3.5 times more likely to have adverse skin manifestations than NHCW. Conclusion: The research showed that health care workers had a greater prevalence of skin conditions than the overall population. Hand hygiene guidelines for frontline employees should be equipped with instructions on how to protect oneself from these adverse skin manifestations, since frequent use constitutes a significant risk factor. Above all, health care professionals and the general population should be educated on good hand hygiene practices.