Integration seeks to break down the barriers between the subject areas in order to provide students with better learning opportunities that facilitate the development of knowledge that is relevant and meaningful to clinical practice, deep and retrievable, and amenable to alteration, updating, and development as a part of an ongoing process of lifelong learning.The subject of curriculum integration has been under discussion off and on for the last half century, with a resurgence occurring over the past decade. The "explosion" of knowledge, the increase of state mandates related to myriad issues, fragmented teaching schedules, concerns about curriculum relevancy, and a lack of connections and relationships among disciplines have all been cited as reasons for a move towards an integrated curriculum.

Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) has been widely used to assess the clinical performance of medical and health profession students. The literature has revealed that OSCE is an effective evaluation tool for evaluating the clinical skills of medical students. The objectives of this study were to investigate perception of the students and staff of OSCE as a clinical assessment tool during their clinical years at the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University (FOM-SCU) as well as the perception of both the staff and medical interns regarding their ethical concerns of using medical interns as simulated patients in OSCE stations. Two different questionnaires were used to explore the perception of the students and staff of OSCE; also, semi-structured interviews with the staff and medical interns as simulated patients inside active stations were conducted. The results revealed that 88% of the students agreed that OSCE should remain as a form of performance assessment, and 83% of them agreed that OSCE was a valuable practical exam and provided them a great learning experience. Approximately 80.4% of the staff emphasised that faculty members need specific training to achieve more valid and reliable results when using OSCE as an assessment tool, and 76.5% of them agreed that using OSCE reduced the bias in clinical assessment. Some medical interns agreed to act as simulated patients inside the dynamic stations instead of using real patients. The study population point of view concluded that OSCE is the most valid and reliable tool for assessing the clinical performance of students; however, it requires comprehensive planning and training with collaborative work from all the stakeholders involved in its organisation and implementation.

Aim: This study aimed to incorporate courses in medical education into the undergraduate medical curriculum at the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University based on students needs for better learning. Methodology: a descriptive study was held to assess the need to incorporate medical education related courses into the undergraduate medical curriculum at the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University. The study was conducted for the undergraduate medical students' year 2009/2010. A self administered anonymous questionnaire was designed to identify students' need to incorporate Medical Education courses into the undergraduate curriculum. Results: The majority of the studied students were in favor of studying the suggested courses especially time management, clinical communication skills and medical ethics (85.28%, 84.85% and 82.25%, respectively). Fifty eight percent of studied students needed to study medical education themes as integrated courses. Most of them (72%) needed these courses to be elective one and (70%) needed to be taught horizontally in one phase. Conclusion: It is important for undergraduate students to acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes concerning their learning processes and some of the principles of medical education, especially in a faculty that adopts innovative educational strategies like FOM-SCU. It showed that the students themselves were interested in receiving these principles.

Background: Learning environment has a direct effect on students' self-efficacy. In clinical training, instructors should provide the support for their students to cope with this stressful environment and to enhance students' achievement. We examined the role of the clinical instructor and students' self-efficacy by two validated questionnaires to find the relationship between these two factors. Objectives: This study aims to investigate the relationship between the role of the clinical instructor, students' self-efficacy, and academic achievement. Subjects and Methods: This is a correlational and predictive study; the study population included all fifth-year undergraduate (number=154) medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University (FOM-SCU). The instruments were Medical Achievement Self-Efficacy Scale (MASS) to measure students' self-efficacy and Nursing Clinical Teacher Effectiveness Inventory (NCTEI) to find out the characteristics of the effective teacher from the students' point of view. The academic achievement of the students was measured through their scores in the OSCE exams in six clinical rounds. Results: The descriptive statistics of the two factors of the MASS questionnaire reveals that the students were highly satisfied with factor regarding outcome expectancy with mean= 3.59. The descriptive statistics of the six factors of the NCTEI questionnaire reveals that the students were highly satisfied with factor 5 (mentoring) with mean= 4.96. The Pearson's correlations revealed positive correlation between the construct of self-efficacy and all factors of NCTEI and academic achievement. Multiple linear regression analysis of the mean scores of student's responses to MASS revealed significant predictions. Conclusion: The study concludes that medical students positively perceive their self-efficacy, which influences the development of their interests and goals. So, this study highlights the importance of the role of the clinical educator, especially as a mentor, for enhancing the perceived self-efficacy of the students.

The preparatory year or first-year experience in higher education is dynamic and contextually specific, and consistently aims to meet the needs of students, institutions and the broader society of which they are part. [1] Preparatory programmes are considered by some educational systems globally as one of the best practices in higher education. [2] The preparatory year aims to help the student to transition from the high school system of teaching and learning to that of the university, acquaint them with the various academic disciplines and introduce them to the university environment before they decide on their future fields of study. [3] The year also prepares them psychologically for their prospective fields of study in subsequent years. [4] Furthermore, it offers intensive training courses to set students on the right track towards their professional careers and enrich their cultural background. [4] One established aim of the preparatory year is to enable new students to explore the academic disciplines at the university, and to familiarise them with the campus environment. As a result, students are well prepared to act as meaningful contributors in their personal and professional lives at university and beyond. [4] Although considerable attention is given in the higher education literature to the preparatory year, most universities did not practise this trend seriously. [5] Therefore, the aim of the current study was to validate a newly developed instrument that evaluates the effect of the preparatory year on students for studying in health professions education faculties.Findings of this study had a great impact on reforming preparatory-year programmes, not only for the health professions but also for the concept in any other similar programmes. This study will direct the attention of Saudi Arabian medical educators to reform initiatives and to consider implementing changes in the existing structure of preparatory years. MethodsThis was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted at King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Saudi Arabia.The sample comprised male and female second-and third-year students who completed their preparatory year and started studying at the Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences and Faculty of Nursing. Sampling was comprehensive -all Background. The preparatory year or first-year experience in higher education aims to consistently meet the needs of students, institutions and broader society. It aims to help students transition from high school to university, acquaint them with the various academic disciplines at university and introduce them to the university environment. Objectives. To validate a newly developed instrument that evaluates the effect of the preparatory year on preparing students for studying in health professions education faculties. Methods. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia, on a comprehensive sample of male and female second-and third-year students wh...

Background: Burnout is a psychological syndrome that is considered an amalgamation of exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy. It is well known that mental well-being of medical students is heavily affected. Student engagement can be defined as a positive state of mind in terms of studying, where the student tends to be more determined. Engaged students are more resilient to academic stress with a sense of well-being and less feeling of burn out in the future. Aim: The study aims at assessing the prevalence of burnout syndrome among undergraduate medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University (FOM-SCU) and to explore the relationship between student engagement and burnout levels. Subjects and Methods: 300 students from all study years participated in the study. The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student Survey (UWES-S) was used to assess the level of student engagement while the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS) was used to gauge the extent of burnout syndrome among medical students. Results: According to our results, 77.3% of the total study population had two-dimensional burnout and 61.7% of them had three-dimensional burnout. Moreover, 49.7% of the total study population had average student engagement level with the highest prevalence in year three with 54.4%. Overall, student engagement levels were moderately negatively correlated with burnout levels. Conclusion: Most of the study population had high levels of burnout. Nearly half of them considered themselves averagely engaged in their studies. Student engagement levels were moderately negatively correlated with burnout levels, denoting the importance of enhancing engagement and preventing burnout.

Background: One of the essential considerations while designing an OSCE exam is “standard-setting”, which refers to the score with which a student could be considered to pass or fail an exam. The selection of proper standard-setting method is based on different criteria, including the applicability of the method, the university bylaws, and the purpose of the test. Objectives: To examine the difference between four different standard-setting methods: the modified Cohen’s, borderline regression, Hofstee methods, and the fixed 60% arbitrary method in determining the passing score in ophthalmology OSCE exam. Methods: Two periodic ophthalmology OSCE were selected to examine the differences in failure rates and pass scores. The four standard setting methods were applied with a sample size that included 38 (year 5 undergraduate) students at the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University. Results: Modified Cohen’s method resulted in the lowest passing score (54% and 58%), while the Hofstee method led to the highest passing score (69.2% and 75%). Comparing the percentage of students who are supposed to pass the exam, we can observe that there is no statistically significant difference among these standard-setting methods were used except for the Hofstee method. Conclusions: There is no single best method for setting the passing mark of an exam. We could obtain more practical outcomes if we considered more than one method and the average pass mark.

Purpose: Cognitive load theory (CLT) is receiving increased recognition in medical education and it was cited as an important theoretical framework for simulation-based medical education. Simulated learning environments can place a high demand on the cognitive resources of the learners, hence, we aimed to design an instructional framework to optimise the total cognitive load imposed on the medical students during their clinical skills training in the clinical skills laboratory. Method: This study is a quasi-experimental post-test design. The sampling technique was purposive sampling, which included year 2 students at the Faculty of Medicine-Suez Canal University population. The study was conducted in the clinical skills and simulation laboratory. The intervention group received a developed instructional design framework based on CLT. The control group learned with the ordinary teaching method without any intervention. The cognitive load was measured using the Cognitive Load Inventory (CLI) immediately after the training session for both groups. Furthermore, students’ achievement in the clinical skill laboratory was compared in both groups. Findings: The total cognitive load is lower in the group that received the developed instructional design than that of the control group, and this result was statistically significant. Also, the performance of the intervention group is higher than in the control group. Implications for research and practice: The developed instructional design framework is a potentially useful guide for managing students' cognitive load in the clinical skills training session.