Prevalence of mistreatment and justice of grading system in five health related faculties in Jordan University of Science and Technology

Abstract

Background: Many Jordanian university students complain of the behavior of some teaching staff. Also, they complain of the grading systems in universities. Aim: This study concerns the occurrence of different forms of student mistreatment and student mistrust of the grading system in the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) as an example of universities in Jordan. Method: A total of 500 students in five health related faculties in JUST responded to a questionnaire. Results: Our results were as follow: (i) 61% of the students had experienced at least one form of mistreatment; (ii) perceived mistreatment most often (52%) had taken the form of psychological mistreatment (shouting and humiliation); (iii) other forms of mistreatment such as physical harm (32%), mistreatment related to religion (36%), mistreatment related to external appearance (35%), sexual harassment (33%) and mistreatment related to specialty (29%) were also common; (iv) with the exception of mistreatment related to specialty which was high among the nursing students, perceived mistreatment did not vary significantly between the different faculties; (v) the male students (66%) complain more than female students (56%); (vi) perceived mistreatment was exceptionally high among the Israeli Arabs, 83% compared to 59% for the Jordanians and 65% for other nonJordanian Arabs; (vii) fellow students (44%), professors (37%) and laboratory technicians (19%) were cited as major sources of mistreatment. Many students (66%) believe that grading system in JUST is unfair. Ninety seven percent of the Israeli Arabs did not trust the grading system compared to 64% of the Jordanians and 66% of the non-Jordanian Arabs. Conclusions: This study suggests that, feelings of mistreatment among university students is strong while their trust of the university grading system is low. Perceived mistreatment and an unfair grading system may be a major source of stress among our students and may affect the process of teaching and learning in our country. This should alert the university administration to face these issues and try to solve them.

Evaluating Nursing Students' Anxiety and Depression during Initial Clinical Experience

“…The nursing students clearly identified that the initial clin ical experience is a cause of an xiety for the m. There has been limited research on clinical stress, anxiety and depression among Arab population [14]. In this study, the majority of students had Mild to moderate an xiety levels.…”

Bullying among medical students in a Saudi medical school

“…Several studies from various countries have shown that bullying, harassment, abuse or belittlements are a regular phenomenon faced by medical students [1-5]. No medical school is immune, irrespective of geographical location or cultural background [1,2]. In Pakistan [1], Ahmer et al conducted a cross- sectional questionnaire survey on bullying of final year medical students in six medical colleges and found that 52% of respondents reported that they had faced bullying or harassment during their medical education, about 28% of them experiencing it once a month or even more frequently.…”

“…The overwhelming form of bullying had been verbal abuse (57%), and consultants were the most frequent (46%) perpetrators [1]. In a Jordanian study, 61% of the students had experienced at least one form of mistreatment; as (52%) were exposed to verbal (shouting and humiliation); (32%) physical harm and (33%) sexual harassment [2]. However nothing is known about its prevalence among medical students in strictly conservative countries such as Saudi Arabia SA.…”

“…In USA, 42% of medical students reported harassment and 84% belittlement during their stay in medical school compared to 50% in Finland [3,4]. It is also lower than some of Middle East countries’ rates such as Jordan 61% and Pakistan 52% [1,2]. The percentage of those exposed steadily increased as students went through the three clinical levels.…”

Stress among Mansoura (Egypt) baccalaureate nursing students

“…Their clinical knowledge, skills, problem solving ability, and professional attitudes have to be assessed in each clinical practicum course [10]. Levels of stress and sources of stress have been reported in studies of nursing students in Western population [1,11-14] However, there has been limited research on clinical stress, anxiety, depression among the Arab population [15,16]. No study has investigated the perception of stress among Egyptian baccalaureate nursing students.…”