Theme
Undergraduate Research / Curricular Environments
Title
Changing Saudi Medical Students opinions about Research
Background
In the last few years, Saudi Arabia established many new universities with colleges of medicine. However, we do not know if this expansion in medical education has brought about a promotion of medical research in Saudi Arabia.
For this reason, we aim to investigate medical students' perceptions and attitudes towards medical research using a simple survey. This survey was undertaken by the medical students at King Abdulaziz University in 2007, and repeted agin in 2015 in that univerity as well as in other four Saudi universities.
Summary of Results
A convenient sample of 924 was enrolled from five Saudi universities were included in the study. Ninety-five (10.3%) of the medical students were not aware of the usefulness and importance of scientific research for their future career. Four hundred and nine (44.3%) stated that they have no knowledge of how to conduct scientific research. On the other hand, the vast majority of medical students (98.1%) expressed willingness and interest in participating in scientific research if offered an opportunity to do that. The percentage of students from King Abdulaziz University (KAU) who strongly agree to participate in research rose from 33.1% in 2007 to 81.5% now (p=0.001). Of all the students surveyed in 2015, 431 (46.6%) had participated scientific research project as undergraduates.
Summary of Work
This is a cross-sectional survey based study conducted among medical students in five Saudi universities. This study was performed in 2015 and the results compared between the universities.
The survey consisted of five questions enquiring about the medical students' opinions and attitudes towards medical research and the resultin one of these universities King Abdulaziz University (KAU) were compared to a similar survey done in that university in 2007 in same university.
Conclusion
While most students expressed enthusiasm in participating in a research project, only few of them had sufficient knowledge or skills in doing basic research. It was evident that there was considerable improvement in students' perception of research in KAU between the first time we asked them in 2007 and the second time in 2015.