BackgroundSaudi Arabia is considered one of the most influential Muslim countries being as the host of the two most holy places for Muslims, namely Makkah and Madina. This was reflected in the emphasis on teaching medical ethics in a lecture-based format as a part of the subject of Islamic culture taught to medical students. Over the last few years, both teaching and evaluation of medical ethics have been changing as more Saudi academics received specialized training and qualifications in bioethics from western universities.MethodsThis study aims at studying the current teaching methods and evaluation tools used by the Saudi public medical schools. It is done using a self-administered online questionnaire.ResultsOut of the 14 medical schools that responded, the majority of the responding schools (6; 42.8%), had no ethics departments; but all schools had a curriculum dedicated to medical ethics. These curricula were mostly developed by the faculty staff (12; 85.7%). The most popular teaching method was lecturing (13; 92.8%). The most popular form of student assessment was a paper-based final examination (6; 42.8%) at the end of the course that was allocated 40% or more of the total grade of the ethics course. Six schools (42.8%) allocated 15-30% of the total grade to research.ConclusionAlthough there is a growing interest and commitment in teaching ethics to medical students in Saudi schools; there is lack of standardization in teaching and evaluation methods. There is a need for a national body to provide guidance for the medical schools to harmonize the teaching methods, particularly introducing more interactive and students-engaging methods on the account of passive lecturing.

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Dengue fever (DF) is the most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral disease worldwide. Several confirmed dengue cases occurred in Jazan region in the last decade. Current study aims to assess the knowledge, attitudes and preventive practices of dengue fever among students of secondary schools in Jazan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was conducted among students of six secondary schools in Jazan. Multistage stratified random sample method was used and seven hundred forty two (742) were taken as respondents in study. We collected information on the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents about their knowledge, attitude and practice towards DF using a prestructured and self administered questionnaire. findings illustrate a poor DF knowledge among the secondary school students in Jazan. As to attitudes towards DF prevention and control, the majority of the respondents were having good attitudes and believed that DF could be controlled and prevented (93.2%), DF control is the responsibility of government and community (83.1%) and they themselves have an important role to play in DF prevention (78.5%). The most common practice to prevent mosquito breeding were found to be the disposing of water from breeding containers (85.5%) and covering of water containers (68.6%). A significant association between the practice of DF preventive and control measures and the gender of the respondents was found (P<0.005).The top two common sources of DF knowledge were identified as primary health care centers and television (48.1% and 44.5%, respectively), Low prevalence of sufficient knowledge was evident among secondary school students in Jazan. Government authorities should strengthen its programs on massive educational campaigns to increase awareness and knowledge regarding dengue and preventive measures to reduce mosquito and prevent dengue. Knowledge of dengue epidemiology may be incorporated into the school curriculum.

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