Determinants of Effective Clinical Learning: Student and Teacher Perspectives

Undergraduate medical education has witnessed a tremendous development in Saudi Arabia over the last four decades. The number of the medical colleges was increased from 3 in 1967 to 21 in 2010. In addition, an accreditation system, in the form of a National commission for academic accreditation and assessment, has been established to monitor and evaluate the quality of postgraduate education. Despite this, recent criticisms have been raised about the quality of the undergraduate medical education in Saudi Arabia. Details are provided in Chapter 1. The first objective of the dissertation was to present an overview of the literature concerning the factors that influence the effectiveness of the clerkships in undergraduate medical education and that contribute to the development of clinical competence of medical students (Chapter 2). The second objective was to investigate the perception of medical students and teachers in Saudi Arabia concerning the determinants of the effectiveness of clinical learning (Chapter 3). The third objective was to develop a new instrument to evaluate the quality of the clinical learning: The Clinical Learning Evaluation Questionnaire (CLEQ) (Chapter 4). The fourth objective of this dissertation was to study students’ evaluation of their exposure to the teaching of ethics (Chapter 5). The fifth objective of this dissertation was to study the perception of undergraduate medical students in Saudi Arabia regarding alcohol and substance use in the community (Chapter 6). The sixth objective was to study the knowledge, attitude and practice of Tobacco smoking by medical students in Saudi Arabia (Chapter 7).