Background: Medical education in Saudi Arabia is facing multiple challenges, including the rapid increase in the number of medical schools over a short period of time, the influx of foreign medical graduates to work in Saudi Arabia, the award of scholarships to hundreds of students to study medicine in various countries, and the absence of published national guidelines for minimal acceptable competencies of a medical graduate.

Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) is an emerging pandemic that has caused significant disruptions to education, resulting in marked scholar closures across the world. The present study documents the student perception of the online educational process at six universities in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 lockdown period. The individual variable factors, i.e., institution, sex, and blended learning, that might influence student perception were also investigated. In this respect, a questionnaire that assessed the impact of COVID-19 on the online learning process and student perception was emailed to a total of 17,230 students from 3 institutions (medical, applied health and dental students) affiliated with six universities in Saudi Arabia. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to determine the validity of the questionnaire. A total of 4850 (28%) students responded to the questionnaire and 46.9% (n = 2275) of the respondents were highly satisfied with their online education. Analyses of the scores from the students showed a highly significant difference (p = 0.000) between the male and female students. Applied health students (highly satisfied score = 63.13) were the most satisfied with their online education, while medical students (highly satisfied score = 39.3) were the least satisfied with this education. In addition, applied health, dental and medical students showed a significantly higher score in favor of blended learning after schools re-open (p = 0.000). Collectively, student satisfaction with online education was common, and blended learning was preferred over the traditional format by both genders and all the students. The present data provide interesting contributions and evidence for policy makers and implementers, which might be helpful for the judgment side of decision making.

There are a number of e-Learning modalities, some or all of which may be used throughout a medical, dental, nursing or any other health related undergraduate curriculum. The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe what e-learning is along with some of the modalities, their common advantages and limitations. This publication ends with practical implications of these modalities for Pakistan.

Objectives: To determine the attitudes of faculty and residents of surgical specialties towards professionalism and to test the validity and reliability of a tool developed in USA for Pakistan. Methods: An exploratory validation study was carried out at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad from 01-Aug-2016 to 31-Jan-2017. Penn State College of Medicine Professionalism Questionnaire (PSCOM) was used, being a reliable and valid survey tools. Exploratory Factor Analysis of the inter-correlations of responses for 36 items was done using SPPS v 21 to give a factor solution to reflect the perceptions regarding attitudinal elements. Results: There were 209 respondents including 172 residents and 37 faculty members. Response rate was 81.32%. Exploratory Factor Analyses of responses gave a seven factor solution of professionalism: accountability, honour and integrity, excellence, duty, altruism, equity and respect. Six of the factors that emerged reflect the six elements of professionalism reported by American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), except for ‘equity’, which was the new factor that emerged. Cronbach’s alpha (Internal Consistency Reliability) for each element of professionalism was between 0.88-0.98. Conclusion: PSCOM is a valid, reliable, feasible and acceptable tool to assess attitudes of faculty and residents towards professionalism in Pakistan. ‘Equity’ emerged as a new factor which needs to be studied further. How to cite this:Manzoor A, Baig LA, Aly SM. Attitudes of faculty and residents of surgical specialties towards professionalism at a tertiary care hospital of Islamabad. Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(2):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.2.387 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Objective: To determine if there was any significant difference in scores of students who acquired knowledge through team-based learning (TBL) versus those who learned through small group discussion (SGD). Study Design: Quasi-experimental cross-over study. Place and Duration of Study: Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad, from March to December 2015. Methodology: All students of second year MBBS were assigned to either TBL or SGD, based on non-probability sampling, for 8 themes in a five-week module. The groups were flipped after 4 themes. TBL format recommended by the AMEE guide No: 65 was followed. The impact of both learning methods was assessed by comparing end-of-module written examination scores of the two groups through independent sample t-test. SPSS version 23 was used for data analysis. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: End-of-module written examination scores showed there was no significant difference in student academic performance when they studied with TBL or SGD in themes 1-4 (TBL 61.90 ±13.01 versus SGD 59.65 ±11.56, p=0.41). However, for themes 5-8 there was a significant difference in scores (TBL 65.36 ±11.62 versus SGD 59.92 ±10.65, p=0.03) A trend towards higher scores was observed in content learned with TBL in all eight themes. Conclusion: TBL is equally effective as an instructional method as SGD. However, it could not be established that it results in significant improvement in learning.

ABSTRACT... Objectives:To determine the efficacy of Local Education System and GCSE system by comparing the scores obtained by first yearMBBS students of both streams of education in the first professional exam. The study also determined the effect of education systems on the study habits of these students. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Rawal Institute of Health Sciences, Islamabad. Period: June 2015 to June 2016. Methods: Students of first year MBBS were interviewed by the researcher by using a close ended questionnaire to compare the study habits between the two groups. First professional exam scores and study habits were noted and compared in both the groups of students coming from two different educational systems by applying Independent Sample T test and Chi Square (χ 2 ) test of independence, respectively, using SPSS 21 version. Results: After analysing the data gathered, it was found that students from both the systems performed equally in the first professional exams irrespective of their educational background, hence there is no relationship between the type of secondary education and performance in professional examinations. Similarly, there was no association between the study habits and the system of education. Our study concludes that study habits are personal traits and vary from one student to another student. Conclusion: The performance of students cannot be calculated simply through the system of education because of the complex and intermingled associations between cognitive, affective and contextual factors in higher education. This study concludes that predictability of academic success based on education system attended is questionable. Key words:Education System in Pakistan; Education System in UK; GCSE; Secondary Education; Professional Education; Study Habits.

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Abstract Objective: Clinical education is an important component of undergraduate medical education. This study compares the efficacy of blended learning (BL) with contemporary face to face (F2F) teaching among medical students by assessing their OSCE scores at end of clinical posting. Methods: This experimental study was conducted in Dow University of Health Sciences from March to August 2014. Third-year medical students posted in the surgical units were divided into two groups. In the first month, one group in the unit was taught by BL while the second group posted in another unit was taught by F2F teaching. Both groups were assessed by same OSCE. In the second month, teaching method was flipped for both the groups with new learning contents. assessment was by the same OSCE for both groups. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 23 with inferential statistics with independent sample t test. Results: A total of 28 students were assessed at the end of posting OSCE in F2F group and 31 students in blended group. There was significant difference in OSCE score [p value = 0.049] after F2F teaching method (78.01 ± 13.29) as compared to BL (85.12 ± 13.77). The domain of “log book” and “clinical examination” scored higher in F2F as compared to BL group. Conclusion: This study showed that student performance can be improved with a blended surgical learning program. BL has proven to be more effective in comparison to face-to-face teaching alone, even in the setting of skill based curriculum like surgery.