Assessment of the level of satisfaction of final years medical students with the clinical training at Taif teaching hospitals, KSA

Abstract

Background: Quality is a major concern of health care agencies all over the world. Medical students in phase III spend many weeks in different clinical departments for acquiring clinical skills and competencies. Among places of clinical training and education are outpatient clinics, internal departments (bedside training), and emergency rooms. The purpose of the study was to evaluate medical students' satisfaction with clinical education during medical internship and the effects of variables in the organizational domain on satisfaction. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive analytic study was conducted. Fifth and sixth year medical students at the Taif College of Medicine were asked to fill a questionnaire to clarify whether they are satisfied with the clinical training at the teaching hospitals in Taif. The level of satisfaction and the association between it and different items of clinical training were identified. Ethical issues were considered. The overall internal consistency (alpha) of various component scales in the curriculum was 0.88 with a range of alpha 0.82-0.91 in various domains. Appropriate statistical tools were used. Results: A total of 257 final years, students responded to the survey. They were 160 males (62.3%), and 97 females (37.7%). Overall satisfaction regarding clinical training was 53.4 %. The association between respondents’ gender and the characteristics of some of the four disciplines of satisfaction revealed significant differences between male and female students. However, the difference in overall satisfaction among male and female students did not reach to the significant level Conclusions: Around half of final years students in Taif College of Medicine was satisfied with clinical education at Taif hospitals. Recommendations: continuous evaluation of student satisfaction is to be essential part of the clinical training service offered by our College at the teaching hospitals to ensure continuous students’ satisfaction and to overcome the barriers against proper clinical training. More concern is to be directed to establishing an up-to-date, well-furnished and well equipped skill lab at the college for training of the students. Of course, pushing forward for finalizing the university hospital will help overcoming all the barriers against adequate satisfaction of our students with their clinical training.