Systematic development and refinement of a contextually relevant strategy for undergraduate medical ethics education: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Delivery of medical ethics education is complex due to various reasons, compounded by the context-dependent nature of the content. The scarcity of relevant resources in the contexts of some developing countries adds a further layer of difficulty to ethics education in these contexts. We used a consultative approach with students, teachers and external experts to develop a practical approach to medical ethics education. This study aimed to develop and refine a contextually relevant approach to ethics education in the region of Saudi Arabia.

METHODS

The study utilised an explorative qualitative methodology to seek views of students and faculty of Rabigh Faculty of Medicine, Saudi Arabia, and international experts in the field of ethics and education to review and enhance a new ethics learning strategy which included a workbook-based tool. Three focus groups with 12 students, in-depth interviews with four faculty members and qualitative feedback from eleven external experts enabled the study participants to objectively critique the WBEL and provide feedback to enhance its quality. Thematic content analysis of the data was done to draw inferences which were used to refine the educational strategy.

RESULTS

The analysis generated twenty-one sub-themes within four main themes: design features, content, teaching methods and assessment. These findings helped to design the educational strategy to improve its effectiveness in the given context.

CONCLUSION

The study drew on the views of students, faculty and external experts to systematically develop a novel approach to ethics education for countries like Saudi Arabia. It also demonstrated the use of the consultative approach for informing a culturally relevant educational strategy in the Middle East context.

Breaking the Curse: Opening Students' Eyes to Pathology and Oncology Research

Research is a particularly underexplored professional activity for physicians, leaving many medical students compelled to pursue a clinical career. However, the XXI century requires that physicians innovate and perform research that fuels their practice; students should have early exposure to research to explore it as a career path. It should be encouraged in the undergraduate program by having students take part in case reports, short communication presentations, and research seminars. As part of an educational strategy, students worked with faculty members to deliver a gynecologic oncology pathology case report as a poster for the Oncology Conference of Medical Students. We used a quantitative approach with a descriptive and cross-sectional design to assess the effect of poster presentations on developing student's research skills. The sample comprised 118 medical students enrolled in the Pathology courses that presented a total of 23 posters. The judges who assessed had a medical specialty in Pathology, Radio-oncology, and Gynecologic Oncology. The results show that students exceeded expectations on the use of language, as it was both formal and technical; and they used relevant bibliographic support and references. However, students performed less well in the clinical case summary. The judges found that although it was coherent and chronologically ordered, they did not include all the relevant laboratory tests and analyses, nor a full description of the diagnosis. This educational strategy has proven to be valuable in promoting Pathology and Oncology Research in students; it allowed participants to adopt a systematic approach and methodologies to document, analyze, and share knowledge.