A Capstone Experience for International MDs: Preparing UAE Graduates for UME to GME Transitions post COVID Pandemic

Abstract

Background: Facilitating the transition of graduating medical students who did their clinical clerkships under the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions to post-graduate training remains under-explored, particularly in the Middle East region. Objectives: A tailored Capstone course was developed to bridge the educational gaps for the first graduating class in the first MD program across the United Arab Emirates, to ready them for residency training. These are international medical graduates who studied exclusively online for years 1 and 2 because of the COVID19 pandemic restrictions, which affected their proper acquisition of clinical skills. They also are the first cohort to graduate from a nascent MD program in the UAE, while all other medical schools in the country have historically adopted the MBBS program. Methods: A total of 26 fourth-year medical students participated in the Capstone course between April and May 2023. Pre- and post-course students’ self-confidence levels on the skills learned were analysed using paired t-tests to determine any statistical significance. Means, standard seviations, and p-values for all stations were computed to summarize the overall changes in confidence levels. Results: The statistical analysis revealed a highly statistically significant p-value of 8.68757E-06, indicating a substantial improvement in the students' self-confidence levels after completing the capstone course. The findings support the effectiveness of the course in enhancing students' confidence, noting that the overall results are more favorable for the psychomotor skills (p-value = 0.00011), with the exception of the cognitive skills related to “reporting events/participating in root cause analysis”, and “recognize high risk medications for error and how to report such errors”. Conclusions: The current study demonstrates the positive impact of a capstone course on the self-confidence levels of graduating medical students. The significant improvements in both psychomotor and cognitive/communication skills highlight the value of targeted training and hands-on experiences in addressing the gaps in clinical education. The results underscore the importance of incorporating in-person training opportunities, especially for developing psychomotor skills, and provide insights for curriculum development and the design of future capstone programs.